violinist, composer, recording artist
Gregory Allison creates with a single violin a sound that travels across great landscapes. He brings the sensibility of a film composer into a live and intimate setting. His training in South Indian Classical music brings a melodic fluency and emotional fire to his compositions while his Western Classical training is apparent in the wide sonic palette that he creates. He is a sound shaper. His violin goes from intimate weeping to orchestral soundscapes, carrying the listener on a journey all the way.
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A composer, multi-instrumentalist, and actor who performs in a wide variety of styles and genres, Greg is originally from Madison, WI where he began studying piano at age 5 and violin at 9. In high school he used his classical violin training as a springboard for learning about improvising, jazz, world music traditions. He started playing the mandolin and his studies on the instrument landed him a four-year scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he completed a degree in Composition. After college he moved to Vermont and was a founding member of the ME/2 Orchestra, a nationally-recognized full orchestra based in Burlington, VT created for people with mental disabilities and those who support them. He also performed in the traditional middle eastern music ensemble Grup Anwar, and travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the Vermont theater troupe Spielpalast Cabaret. In Portland, OR he opened a private studio teaching violin, viola, mandolin, and piano while performing over 200 shows a year with Three for Silver, Eliza Rickman, as a sideman for various local bands, and as a studio musician. He has received two U.S. State Department grants to tour and teach in Russia.
In 2018 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a solo performing, recording, and film scoring career. He formed the acoustic trio RAQIA who will be releasing their second studio album next year. His first solo album is due out in early 2021.
Original composition "Inhale" live in Portland, 2019
Music from unreleased upcoming solo album
Music for Film
Original score for OutsideTV's Changing Course
dir Anne Cleary
Original music for Hoh Rainforest Cue
video by Gregory Allison
RAQIA
RAQIA is an instrumental trio formed in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018. Consisting of guitarist Tad Piecka (Beware of Safety, Petrychor, Wizzrobe), violinist Gregory Allison (Eliza Rickman, Three for Silver) and keyboardist Jon Bernstein (Disparition, Welcome to Night Vale), this ensemble draws influences from a wide array of genres including ambient, folk, world fusion, and jazz.
In an age of rising chaos and encroaching darkness, RAQIA seeks to create sanctuary and connection with the natural world through music. Weaving between structured compositions and open improvisation, this is music of and for the elements. Guitarist Tad Piecka, coming from a background of post-rock and black metal, here infuses his lightning fast finger-picking skills with a strain of folk and Americana, enhanced by his focus on the 12-string acoustic. Violinist Gregory Allison combines his experiences with folk and chamber pop with his training and background in Carnatic music, bringing a fluid and emotional fire to the group’s sound. Jon Bernstein, primarily known for ambient and cinematic soundscapes and sound design in the audio drama space, here focuses almost entirely on piano, drawing from styles that range from neoclassical to pop music. As a group, these three merge organically to create a new sound that acknowledges their diverse influences while establishing a space that is very much their own.