Fred Allen

FRED J. ALLEN is Director of Bands at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. In addition to his conducting the Wind Ensemble at SFASU, he also teaches conducting, orchestration and music education classes. He oversees nearly three hundred band students involved in the SFA band program, in four concert groups, the athletic bands and several chamber ensembles. He was the 2006 recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award at SFA for the College of Fine Arts.

Allen is a product of Music Education in the state of Texas. Before playing in the Longview High School Band of John C. "Pete" Kunkel, he was in the bands of Verna Covington and David Pennington in Austin and Don Turner, Paul Stroud and Jimmy Yancey in Longview. His undergraduate studies with Dr. Charles Trayler, then at Abilene Christian University, furthered his training in Music Education.

Under his direction, the Wind Ensemble at SFA has performed regularly at conventions of the Texas Music Educators Association and College Band Directors National Association. His SFA Wind Ensemble has performed with several guest artists and guest conductors. Under his leadership, the SFA Wind Ensemble continues its long tradition of commissioning new works from composers. Recent commissions have produced works from David Maslanka, Jack Stamp, Samuel Zyman, Frank Ticheli and SFA's Stephen Lias.

Allen has conducted All-Region and All-State Bands throughout Texas and the United States, where he is also an active concert clinician and adjudicator. He has often served as guest conductor for bands playing at the Mid-West Band Convention and the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, and has also conducted the Seoul Wind Ensemble and the Al Fine Concert Band in Taegu, Korea. He remains current in the public school classroom through regular visits to area band classes, from beginners through high school.

Allen has published several pieces for band that draw upon his experience teaching band in the public schools in Texas. These works have been performed frequently at band conventions and festivals across the United States and recently, in Korea, Great Britain, Germany and Australia. He has several commissioned works in progress. There are several pieces for band by Fred J. Allen on the Prescribed Music List used by the University Interscholastic League in Texas.

As a woodwind specialist, he performed professionally at Opryland U.S.A., for the Ice Capades, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Circus and for over forty musical productions and operas. He is a former member of the Orchestra of the Pines, the Abilene Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra, and the Irving Symphony, as well as community bands in Forth Worth and Lubbock.

He is a member of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters' Fraternity, the College Band Directors National Association, and the Texas Music Educators Association.