Allen McCullough

Dr. Allen McCullough, b.1978, is an active composer and pedagogue, currently teaching through the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance at Purdue University.  With an undergraduate degree in music from Brown University, he also holds one Master’s degree in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, where his primary study was with Giampaolo Bracali, along with a second Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with James Primosch, Jay Reise, and Anna Weesner. 

He has composed extensively for the piano, for voice, and has several entries in the string quartet genre, alongside works for full orchestra, including a concerto for piano and orchestra, and a symphony in five movements.  He has been commissioned by Chamber Music Yellow Springs, the Eakins Vocal Consort of Philadelphia, and the Lotte Lehman Foundation, and has procured or participated in grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Mercer University, and Purdue University.  Recent honors include selection for drift – vol.34 of the Society of Composers, Inc. new music CD series; selection for inclusion in the scores library for the American Viola Society for his Sonata for Viola and Piano (c.2019); the performance of his SATB choral work Evening’s Song by the Lafayette Chamber Singers; selection as a finalist for the National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS) Song Cycle competition for The Blue Symphony song cycle (c.2014); and – most recently – selection for his Prelude No.5 (c.2011) to be included in  RMN Classical’s album Modern Piano 3, to be released in 2021. 

He has collaborated with internationally recognized artists and ensembles, including Yekwon Sunwoo – pianist and 2017 Van Cliburn gold medalist; Josef Spacek – violin soloist and concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Jennifer O’Loughlin – American soprano acclaimed for her leading opera roles and recitals in Europe, America, and Japan; and the Aeolus, Harlem, and Daedalus String Quartets, among other notable artists and ensembles. 

He resides in West Lafayatte, IN (USA) with his wife, Karen, and their four daughters.