Discipline: Music Composition

Douglas Allanbrook

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Annapolis, MD
MacDowell Fellowships: 1946, 1947, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1966
More: www.mapleshaderecords.com/artists/douglas_allanbrook.php
Douglas Allanbrook (1921 – 2003) was an American composer, concert pianist, and harpsichordist. He was associated with a group of mid-20th century Boston composers who were students of Nadia Boulanger. Within two years of beginning to play piano at eight, he was playing Bach, Haydn, and Czerny. By 13, he started composing; his first serious piece was entitled On the Death of a Beautiful White Cat. By the time he was in high school he was churning out larger piano pieces and writing sketches for his Symphony in G Minor. He entered Harvard to study with Walter Piston after World War II. He composed prolifically and his works were performed throughout Cambridge and Boston. He spent many summers composing among the distinguished artists at MacDowell and wrote music late into life. Allanbrook's extensive catalogue comprises seven symphonies, two operas, choral works both sacred and profane, four string quartets, numerous chamber pieces for everything from brass quintets to piano-percussion duos—and, of course, innumerable piano and harpsichord works. These compositions have been performed by orchestras and chamber groups across America and Europe, including the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Annapolis Brass Quintet.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Douglas Allanbrook worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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