Praised for her "agile and stylish" coloratura and “a voice that evoke[s] thoughts of the great contraltos of bygone days”, Allison Gish is a mezzo-soprano based in New York. She will debut with ARE Opera as Zita in Gianni Schicchi and with On Site Opera as Kathleen O'Fallin in Morning Star this season. She will also debut as soloist with Ars Musica in Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil and J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor and with Bourbon Baroque in Handel's Messiah.

An avid performer of early music, Ms. Gish recently sang the roles of Giunone and La Natura with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble and Medoro in Handel's Orlando with the Cantanti Project. As a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at Songfest, she appeared as soloist in Bach Cantata 161 with conductor, John Harbison. She has appeared as a soloist with Mannes Baroque in Handel’s Mi palpata il cor, Monteclair’s Pan et Syrinx, Vagaus in Vivaldi's Juditha triumphans (excerpts), Piacere in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo (excerpts).

Ms. Gish is also an avid performer of contemporary music. While at Songfest, she performed John Musto’s Enough Rope with the composer at the piano. In a performance deemed “flawless” (Opera News), Ms. Gish sang the role of Green Pants & Co with "fresh shades of self-flagellating nuance” (Log Journal) in a critically-acclaimed new production of Robert Ashley's 1999 opera DUST at Mannes under the direction of Bill Gustafson and Joan LaBarbara.

A seasoned choral artist, Ms. Gish is a professional chorister with the Brick Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir in Manhattan, and previously has sung with The New Amsterdam Singers, Schola Cantorum on Hudson, and Baton Rouge Early Vocal Ensemble. She will join The Village Carolers this holiday season.

Ms. Gish is a recent graduate of the Professional Studies Diploma at Mannes College and completed her Bachelor of Music at Louisiana State University. In the interim between her music degrees, Ms. Gish completed a masters in communication disorders at Louisiana State University, publishing her master’s thesis “Vocal Warm-Up Practices and Perceptions in Vocalists: A Pilot Survey in Journal of Voice. She worked as a speech-language pathologist for several years before returning to singing full-time.

Examples of what I can perform at groupmuses include:

An Evening of Art Song (on various themes) with piano or guitar. Examples: French art song, Love songs, Songs about solitude, etc.
Early music ensemble (e.g. continuo (harpishord/guitar/lute and cello/viol/bass/bassoon) with other instruments as available performing Baroque arias or solo chamber cantatas
Opera arias or duets with piano