Jen Allen is Visiting Assistant Professor in Music and Director of the Trinity Jazz Ensemble. She is a pianist, composer and author.

In 2011, she was chosen as one of eight women world-wide to participate in the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Workshop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Her first book was published through Alfred's Publishing called Sitting In: Jazz Piano (co-authored with pianist, Noah Baerman).  The book was the recipient of Music Inc. Magazine's Editor's Choice Award 2015.

Jen composes music for big bands, studio orchestras, string quartet and other smaller ensembles. She is presently a member of the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City.

An active recording artist, Jen is featured on the new release of the innovative, collaboratively led Trio 149 (with Noah Baerman and Jonathan Blake), the upcoming recording of the New London Big Band and later in 2019 will release her newest album as a leader with her quartet.

Jen has received degrees in performance and composition from The Hartt School and UMASS Amherst.  She has taught at multiple schools, universities, festivals and camps including the Litchfield Jazz Camp, The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and The University of Hartford.

Her teaching style focuses on both the development of individual “voice” and ensemble aesthetic. Jen believes in taking every opportunity to link her instruction to the aural tradition by which jazz has been transferred for over a century.  She enjoys using theoretical concepts to spur herself and her students into a new understanding of the art form.

www.jenallenmusic.com

• Chosen as one of eight women world-wide to participate in the week long Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Workshop at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, 2011.