Karrin Allyson
Passionate About Sharing Music
Allyson is Karrin — an internationally aclaimed pianist and singer with thirteen albums on the Concord Jazz label, four Grammy nominations and appearances all over the world. Allyson is noted both for the warmth and sincerity of her performing style and the breadth of her repertoire, which embraces the Great American Songbook, Brazilian Bossa Nova, French Chanson, the great classic jazz composers — Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, John Coltrane as well as sympathetic and imaginative treatment of the great singer-songwriters — Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, all the way to Jimmy Webb and Elton John.
Karrin Allyson is also a respected and very much in demand teacher, working with singers from London to Tokyo and has recently taken on a new roll — Jazz Vocal Instructor at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, joining a outstanding faculty headed by Javon Jackson.
In recognition of Karrin Allyson’s life in music and her long association with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Karrin’s alma mater, is presenting Karrin with an honorary Doctorate of Music in the fall of 2022.
In a recent extension of her wide-ranging love of many styles of music, Karrin enlisted her partner, Bill McGlaughlin, widely known as a conductor, composer and long time Public Radio music host in the creation of a new radio program: The B&K Cafe, which invites listeners into their living room monthly in a program of music and intimate conversation. The B&K Cafe has been broadcast since its inception in summer of 2000 over award-winning WWFM, and the full archive of all the programs are available online at WWFM.org.
With fifteen albums released so far, and more exciting projects in the works, this five-time Grammy nominated artist’s range and creativity seems to have no bounds. What unites this wide world of music is Allyson’s warmth and depth. She’s not just singing a lyric, she’s telling you her story. And then that becomes a part of your story. You hear the music from the inside out.
