“In high school, at the end of a marching band practice, all the students but one had come in from the vast grass playing fields of my suburban school. The remaining student, a trombonist, stood by himself, alone on the field, playing blues. The sound drifted back across the field to the rest of us, muted by distance. I have held that image of trombone solitude in my mind ever since."

"Mojave Highway is a suite of images depicting moments experienced on a trip by car along U.S. highway 395 through the Mojave desert. The day begins auspiciously. We move smoothly across the open road. Car trouble forces us off the highway near an abandoned gas station. Our only company for hours is a lizard who darts and waits among the rusting auto parts. In the brilliant midday sun, the lizard dances to mariachi music we imagine coming from the remains of an old radio on the gas station counter. An 18 wheeler approaches from a distance and passes, not noticing us. Evening falls and the stars come out. We are alone under the sky. "

Composer, arranger and orchestrator Ted Allen is fluent in many musical genres. He has conducted his popular compositions at Lincoln Center and his serious compositions have won awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, ASCAP and Yale University.

Mr. Allen is a co-founder and co-director, composer and arranger for Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a nine-piece wind band that performs marches, virtuoso brass solos and silent film music from the early twentieth century as well as new compositions influenced by traditional popular forms. The Nobles have performed live on WNYC-FM, at Lincoln Center, the Storm King Art Center and at clubs and corporate plazas around New York City. Their debut CD, Frantic Antics has just been released on the Newport Classic label.

His art music works include the chamber orchestra piece Bridge Rivers Building, premiered by the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, The Wind Was Strong, for flute, tuba and marimba, commissioned and performed numerous times by the New York trio, Singletree, and Starfield II for electronic tape and Viola da Gamba, which was premiered at the New American Music Festival at Cal State Sacramento. His one-act music theater piece, I Am Building an Altar, was produced by International Performance Actions in New Haven, CT in 1986.

As an arranger for live performance and recording he has scored for ensembles ranging from chamber groups to big bands and symphony orchestras. He has orchestrated two full-length musicals and three industrial shows. Clients included rock and roll artists Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Hue and Cry (artists on Virgin Records, album went gold in the U.K), the New York Pops, Mitch (The Impossible Dream) Leigh Big Band, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Little Orchestra Society (New York), Queensland Ballet (Australia) Ordway Theater (St.Paul), Walnut Street Theater (Philadelphia), Tri-State Center for the Arts (upstate New York), and Queensland Ballet (Australia).

Mr. Allen has written ten pop-oriented electronic scores for interactive media, including the Sony Playstation game, Gex, Return of the Gecko and the CD-ROM, Microsoft 3D Movie Maker which won a NewMedia Invision award for audio. In reviews of his score to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game, Pink Goes to Hollywood, Gamepro magazine wrote One of the supreme achievements of Pink Goes to Hollywood is the music...and The music works with the clear, clever sound effects to earn this cart the highest sound rating possible.

Ted received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music.