Internationally recognized as an ambitious contemporary saxophonist, Allison Balcetis has studied and collaborated with artists from around the world. Her international performance career includes concerts in Italy, France, Thailand, Slovenia, North America, and Brazil. Most recent collaborations include working with Brazilian composers André Mestre, André Ribeiro, Rodrigo Bussad, and Manuel Failleros to create a yearly workshop of young composers’ pieces, performing them in a professional context. Other notable collaborations with composers include Georges Aperghis, Marcos Balter, Colin Labadie, Thierry Alla, and Henri Pousseur.
As a faculty member of the University of Alberta since 2009, Allison trains the next generation of thoughtful, artistic musicians in Applied Saxophone, Chamber Music, Woodwind Techniques, and Aural Skills. Outside of the university, Allison helps develop the new music community as past Executive Member and Production Manager of New Music Edmonton and board member of the Borealis Electro Acoustic Music Society.
Allison's recent chamber activities include performing with pianist Sandra Joy Friesen as the Bent Note duo, the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, improvisation ensemble The Damn Magpies, New Music Edmonton's in-house ensemble Violet Collective, and work with Edmontonian musicians and dance companies such as the Jen Mesch Dance Conspiracy and Mile Zero Dance. With Jen Mesch, Allison co-curates a monthly multi-disciplinary improvisation series called SubArctic Improv and Experimental Arts. In 2007 Allison co-founded Anubis Quartet, a Chicago-based ensemble with more than 30 commissions and premieres of provocative new music, performing with them until 2014. During her undergraduate degree, Allison won first place in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2005.
While earning her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Alberta under the direction of Dr. William Street, Allison produced her first solo recording, Zeniths and Nadirs. She also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University where she studied with Dr. John Sampen, and is the first – and only – saxophonist to earn a joint degree from the Université de Bordeaux and the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux where she studied with Marie-Bernadette Charrier.