Allen Shearer

Allen Raymond Shearer (born October 5, 1943 in Seattle, Washington) is an American composer and baritone.

Life
Shearer’s early musical experiences were as a singer; the majority of his works are for the voice or voices, with a later emphasis on opera. With his first wife, pianist Barbara Shearer (1936–2005), Shearer's performances included art songs, some of which were his own. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1972, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria where he received diplomas in concert singing and opera. He taught voice in Special Programs at the University of California at Berkeley. Among his composition teachers were Fred Lerdahl, Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie and Max Deutsch, with whom he studied in Paris. He has received awards in music, including the Rome Prize Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Award, the Sylvia Goldstein Award, a Charles Ives Scholarship, residencies at the MacDowell Colony, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Musical style
When asked about his musical style in the discussion preceding the 2009 premiere of his opera The Dawn Makers, Shearer answered that it varies according to the demands of the medium. Critics also describe it variously. The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music observes that Shearer’s music, "though it recalls postwar serialism in its rhythms and textures, relies on traditional counterpoint and on tonal centers." Its lyric quality is frequently cited: Jeff Rosenfeld, reviewing Shearer’s Outbound Passenger, found the music "tuneful and harmonious;" and of Shearer’s cantata King Midas, critic Robert Commanday wrote, ‘The singing lines are fluid and supple, animated, alive; the harmony and scoring for a quintet of instruments and percussion battery (two players), rich but delicately so."  In the British periodical Opera, Allan Ulrich wrote that the score of Shearer’s chamber opera The Dawn Makers has "genuine personality. The hour-long opera abounds in extended ariosos and bravura outbursts and unfurls in a conservative idiom, spiced with dissonances which neatly evade the neo-Romantic pitfalls that prevail in American opera circles." Of the same work, Thomas Busse wrote in San Francisco Classical Voice, "The music’s greatest strength was its singability, attributable to the composer’s being a vocalist himself. I would describe Shearer’s eclectic style as more declamatory than lyrical." Of Shearer's opera Middlemarch in Spring Janos Gereben wrote in the San Francisco Examiner, "Shearer's music is pleasantly dissonant, with a sound that sticks in the ears and memory. It's ambiguous music, seemingly wondering [sic] between keys, but landing securely each time."

Opera
The Singer Josephine (2023), opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens after Kafka

Einstein at Princeton (2022), opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens

Prospero's Island (2021), opera in two acts on a libretto by Claudia Stevens after Shakespeare's The Tempest

Jackie at Vassar (2019), opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens

Howards End, America (2018), opera in three acts on a libretto by Claudia Stevens after the novel by E. M. Forster

Circe's Pigs (2016), chamber opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens

Kissing Marfa (2015), comic opera in one scene on a libretto by Claudia Stevens based on a short story by Anton Chekhov

Middlemarch in Spring (2014), chamber opera in two acts on a libretto by Claudia Stevens after the novel by George Eliot

Riddle Me (2010), chamber opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens

A Very Large Mole (2009), chamber opera in one act on a libretto after Franz Kafka by Claudia Stevens

The Dawn Makers (2008), chamber opera in one act on a libretto by Claudia Stevens

The Goddess (1997), opera in four acts on a libretto by the composer after the screenplay by Satyajit Ray

Instrumental works
Intermezzo (2024) for flute, bassoon and piano

Weft (2024) for clarinet, bassoon and piano

Forest Scene (2024) for unaccompanied violin

Nocturne (2023) for nine cellos

Wink for wind ensemble (2023)

Duo (2022) for violin and cello

Impossible Marriage (2022) for clarinet, violin and piano

Eastbound Traveler (2021) for mixed quartet

October (2020) for brass quintet

Early Start (2019) for flute, cello and piano

Thinking Thoughts (2019) for violin and piano

Sea Critter (2016) for piano solo

Road Piece (2015) for brass trio and percussion

Intermezzo (2014) for clarinet solo

Footloose (2013) for flute, violin and guitar

Roundelay (2011) for oboe, clarinet and bassoon

Riff on a Verse (2011) for violin and percussion

Terrains (2010) for piano and string trio

Forthrights and Meanders (2009) for violin, cello and piano

Soliloquy (2009) for viola solo

Bagatelles (2006) for flute and clarinet

Memory Beams (2005) for violin and guitar

Choral works
Lyrics for Chorus (2023) for mixed chorus SATB

Romanç de matinet (2012) for mixed chorus SATB

Listen. Put on Morning (2011) for mixed chorus SSATB

The Holy Innocents (2011) for mixed chorus SSAATTBB

Hymn to Gaia (2010) for mixed chorus SATB and chamber ensemble

Orpheus in the Underworld (2010) for men’s chorus TTBB

Songs of the Moment (2007) for women’s chorus SSAA

Vocal works
Echoes (2024) for soprano, cello and piano

Duets for Voice and Oboe (2024) for soprano and oboe

Plenitudes (2022) for soprano, flute, viola and guitar, on poems of Jane Hirshfield

Strange Gifts (2022) for baritone and piano

From Spell to Trance (2021) for soprano and piano

The River-Merchant’s Wife (2018) for soprano, flute, viola and piano

Psalm, Lament and Aubade (2018) for soprano, clarinet and piano

November Gold (2017) for medium voice and piano

Stories Wind Told to Grass (2015) for mezzo soprano, flute, cello and piano

The Leaves of Another Year (2014) for baritone, clarinet and guitar

Night Songs II (2009) for mezzo soprano, viola and piano

Learning the Elements (2007) for mezzo soprano, clarinet, cello and piano

Night Songs (2005) for medium voice, clarinet/bass clarinet, viola and harp

How Poems Are Made (2006) for soprano and piano

Secrets (2003) for mezzo soprano, flute, cello and piano

Fables II (2002) for mezzo soprano or baritone, flute, guitar and double bass

Discography
Five Poems of Wallace Stevens, "Dimensions," CRS 8944

Nude Descending a Staircase, "I Have Had Singing", Chanticleer Records CR 8810

Mushrooms, "With a Poet’s Eye", Chanticleer Records CR 8804

The Illusion of Eternity, "The Anniversary Album 1978-1988," Chanticleer Records CR 8804