A native of New York City, Allan Blank (b.1925) studied violin at the High School of Music and Art and conducting at the Juilliard School of Music. After a stint as a violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, he left in 1952 to devote himself to composition. He has taught at a number of universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University where he was Professor of Composition from 1978 to 1996 and is now Professor Emeritus.
Blank has written over a hundred works including operas, symphonic and concerted works, choral and vocal pieces, and much chamber music. He has been awarded many commissions and honors, including First Prize in the 1983 George Eastman Competition, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in the same year for his one-act opera The Magic Bonbons. More recently, he won the 1994 competition of the Flute Choir of the University of Toledo for his piece for flute choir, Mindscapes; the 1988 Erik Satie Mostly Tonal Award for his String Trio; and the Annual Choral Competition of the Chautauqua Chamber Singers for his setting of Poor Richard’s Almanack. He has also been the recipient of commissions in 1979, 1988, and 1991 from the Virginia Music Teachers Association. His works have been recorded on the CRI, Orion, Advance, Open Loop, Titanic, Centaur, Pro Viva, North/South, and Contemporary Record Society labels, and are published by Boosey and Hawkes, Associated Music Publishers, Theodore Presser, Seesaw, Music for Percussion, Falls House Press, Roncorp, Nichols, and others. |
