Hailed by The New York Times as a “major artist” after her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1975, Nancy Allen has built a distinguished 50+ year career as a soloist, principal harpist, recording artist and teacher. A native New Yorker who grew up on Long Island, she began her musical studies on harp, piano and oboe, training first with Pearl Chertok before spending the summer of 1972 in Paris studying with the legendary French harpist Lily Laskine. That same year she entered The Juilliard School to study with world renowned harpist Marcel Grandjany in his final harp class. Ms. Allen completed her BM and MM degrees studying with harp scholar Jane B. Weidensaul and with the famed harp soloist Susan McDonald.

In 1973 Ms. Allen won first prize at the Fifth International Harp Competition in Jerusalem, launching her international solo career. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts “Solo Recitalist Grant” and received sponsorship from the ProMusicis Foundation headed by Father Eugène Merlet, presenting her in concert halls, community centers, prisons and hospitals around the USA and France.

While still a student, Ms. Allen had the opportunity to perform as second harpist with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Leonard Bernstein and Giuseppe Sinopoli, and as second harpist to the famed Welsh harpist Osian Ellis and the London Symphony, Claudio Abbado conducting.

In 1999 Ms. Allen joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Harp, performing under the batons of Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Alan Gilbert, Jaap van Zweden, and Gustavo Dudamel. She premiered Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp (2001) and presented the New York premiere of Tan Dun’s Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women (2016), as well as multiple performances of Mozart’s Concerto for Harp and Flute and Claude Debussy’s Sacred and Profane Dances.

Ms. Allen has enjoyed solo performances in collaborations with major dance companies during her career. Highlights include:

• The Joffrey Ballet premiere of “Orpheus Times Light,” choreographed by Gerald Arpino, based on José Serebrier’s Concerto for Harp, in October 1976 at New York’s City Center.
• The Martha Graham Company’s premiere of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s “Shadows,” based on his composition “Cantabile and Scherzo” for harp and string quartet, choreographed by Martha Graham and featuring dancers Janet Eilber and Peter Sparling.
• Eliot Feld’s choreography of the Sacred and Profane Danses of Claude Debussy.
• Eliot Feld’s choreography of Albert Roussel’s 1919 “Impromptu,” Opus 21 for solo harp, with the famous German ballerina Birgit Keil of the Stuttgart Ballet, later revived by City Ballet’s famed solo dancer Tiler Peck, with Nancy Allen on harp.

A highlight of her collaborations was with flutist Nadine Asin at the Aspen Center for Physics / the Aspen Music Festival, performing Mozart’s C major Concerto during a presentation on Mozart by physicist Stephen Hawking.

Ms. Allen maintains an active international schedule as a soloist and chamber musician, with appearances at major festivals and collaborations with artists such as flutists Ransom Wilson and Carol Wincenc, soprano Kathleen Battle, guitarist Manuel Barrueco, and The Tokyo Quartet. Her most recent ensemble, The Gossamer Trio, features Nancy Allen with Carol Wincenc, flute, and Claire Marie Solomon, cello.

An educator for five decades, Nancy Allen holds positions at The Juilliard School and The Aspen Music Festival and School. A prestigious array of past students includes international prize-winners and principal harpists in the world’s leading orchestras of Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Cincinnati, Toronto, Rochester, Buffalo and New Jersey, as well as the Köln Philharmonie, Radio France, L’Orchestre de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Calgary Philharmonic, Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and The New York City Ballet.

Allen’s recording career spans labels including Angel/EMI, RCA, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque and CRI. Her 1983 recording of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the Tokyo Quartet, flutist Ransom Wilson, and clarinetist David Shifrin received a Grammy Award nomination. Other notable recordings include a solo Bach album, Rodrigo’s Harp Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and contemporary works by Takemitsu, Rochberg and Richard Wilson. She recorded Mozart’s Concerto for Harp and Flute with Susan Palma, flutist, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. Reaching into other areas of music, Ms. Allen joined clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and bassist Eddie Gomez in a recording of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song “If It’s Magic,” and accompanied violinist David Nadien and famed singer Carly Simon in “Spring Is Here” on the 1988 LP “Torch.”

Ms. Allen’s favorite career performances have included the White House Lawn in 2008 with Kathleen Battle, welcoming Pope Benedict XVI on his 81st birthday; a solo recital at the Supreme Court at the request of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; a performance atop Ajax Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, celebrating the 1986 opening of the Silver Queen Gondola; the Mostly Mozart Festival with the legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; and Lincoln Center’s “Spirituals in Concert” with Kathleen Battle, James Levine conducting.

In an historic 2008 concert of The New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Ms. Allen and flutist Mindy Kaufman were featured in the Korean folk song “Arirang.”