Allison Balcetis, DMus - Directory@UAlberta.ca

Contact

ATS Full Lecturer, Faculty of Arts - Music Dept

Email: balcetis@ualberta.ca

Overview

About

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 throughout North America, Europe, Brazil, Thailand, and Taiwan. Recent projects include partnering with André Mestre to create Curto-Circuito, a yearly workshop for young Brazilian composers, which has seen the creation of over 30 new pieces for saxophone and piano since 2014. Other creative partnerships include Colin Labadie, Ian Crutchley, Nicolás Arnáez, Thierry Alla, Rodrigo Bussad, and André Ribeiro. Her work as a soloist and chamber musician has produced over 70 world premieres.

As a faculty member of the University of Alberta since 2009, Allison trains the next generation of thoughtful, artistic musicians, teaching saxophone, chamber music, woodwind techniques, and aural skills. Outside of the university, Allison helps develop the contemporary arts community as co-curator of SubArctic Improv and Experimental Arts, a monthly concert series pairing dancers, musicians, text, and visual artists in a totally improvised context. Co-curating with dancer Jen Mesch, the first season welcomed over 50 artists to the stage in 2015/2016. She has also been an Executive Board Member of New Music Edmonton, Alberta’s premiere new music concert presenters, since 2010.

Allison's recent chamber activities include performing with pianist Sandra Joy Friesen as the Bent Note duo, the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, improvisation ensemble 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. In 2017 Allison was awarded the Qualico Artistic Leadership Award from the Mayor's Awards for the 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.

Research

Ensembles

Proteus Quartet. Saxophonists Holly DeCaigny, Tommy Davis, Mark Michalak, Allison Balcetis. 2020 - present
damn magpies. Improvisation sextet with flutist Chenoa Anderson, percussionist Mark Segger, singer Jane Berry, electronics by Scott Smallwood, and found oddities by Ian Crutchley. 2014 - present
UltraViolet. Quartet with pianist Roger Admiral, flutist Chenoa Anderson, and percussionist Mark Segger. 2014 - present
Edmonton Saxophone Quartet. Saxophonists Charles Stolte, Kendra Heslip, Emily Schultz, Allison Balcetis. 2015 - present
The Bent Note. Duo with pianist Sandra Joy Friesen. 2014 - 2016
Anubis Quartet. Chicago-based Non Profit / 501(c)(3) Organization and saxophone quartet, 40 commissions and/or world premieres. 2007 - 2014

Notable Performances/Premieres

Field Studies - An album of chamber music by composer Emilie LeBel, released on Redshift Records, featuring Balcetis on three tracks. May 2023.
Ten new commissions of works by Canadian composers for the UltraViolet ensemble. 2022-2023
Relay. Launch. A solo album of works written for Balcetis. Released March 2020
Six World Premieres/ University of Chicago, residency with composition grad students. January, 2020. Chicago, Illinois
. . . sur un îlot de la rivière . . . by François Rossé. Solo performance at the World Saxophone Congress. July 2018.

Teaching

saxophone performance
chamber music coach and program coordinator
Woodwind Techniques for students who intend to become band directors
Aural Skills - ear training and sight singing skills for all music majors

Winter Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Allison Balcetis

Scholarly Activities

Research - echoradia

Started: 2019-08-01

echoradia is the surreal combination of spinning wheel, weaving loom, electronics, and saxophones played by Kelly Ruth and Allison Balcetis. Performing improvised music together since 2019.

echoradia début EP

Research - New Music Edmonton

2010 to Ongoing

New Music Edmonton - the city's foremost organization promoting Canadian composers and producing an annual new music concert series as well as an annual festival.
Visual documentation from past shows and outreach events.

Research - UltraViolet

Started: 2013-08-01

Comprising pianist Roger Admiral, percussionist Mark Segger, flutist Chenoa Anderson, and saxophonist Allison Balcetis, UltraViolet’s musicians are forward-thinking, virtuosic, dedicated artists. UltraViolet is named in honour of composer Dr. Violet Archer, who encouraged her students to create their own opportunities for their music to be performed.

UltraViolet YouTube channel