Colin McAllister is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where he is a 2021-2022 Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Fellow. His performances as a guitarist and conductor have been hailed as ‘sparkling….delivered superbly’ (San Francisco Chronicle), ‘ravishing’ (San Diego Union Tribune) and ‘an amazing tour de force’ (San Diego Story), and he has recorded on the Summit, Innova, Centaur, Naxos, Albany, Old King Cole, Vienna Modern Masters, Carrier and Tzadik labels. His research interests include contemporary music performance and pedagogy, musical modernism, and the apocalyptic paradigm as manifested in varying phenomena—literature, music, and art.
Recent publications include the Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature, the first modern-language translation of the Cambridge Glossa in Apocalypsin (Brepols, Corpus Christianorum in Translation) The Road Less Traveled (Summit Records), and Dies irae, dies illa: Music in the Apocalyptic Mode (Brill Word and Music series, forthcoming 2022). He has two works with Productions d’OZ: The Vanguard Guitar and Fourteenth Century Counterpoint: Music of the Chantilly Codex. The Vanguard Guitar was praised by Soundboard magazine as ‘a great success…not only a primer of modern techniques, but also a library of current performance practices’. His two guitar instructional courses: Learning to Play Guitar: Chords, Scales and Solos and Playing Guitar Like a Pro: Lead, Solo and Group Performance are produced by The Great Courses. Colin is endorsed by PRS Guitars, and is also an Artist Partner with Taylor Guitars.
A dedicated performer of contemporary repertoire, Colin has given over 100 first performances, including the U.S. premiere of works by leading European composers Chaya Czernowin, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Vinko Globokar, Helmut Lachenmann and Rolf Riehm. He has performed throughout North America and Europe including the Monday Evening Concerts, New Music Miami, San Francisco sfSound, Darmstadt International Music Festival, Festival Hispanoamericano de Guitarra, Dallas Festival of Modern Music, Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez in Mexico City, PRISMS New Music, Seattle Transport Jazz, Breda Jazz Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras (CMMAS). As a guest artist, he has appeared with the San Diego Opera, San Diego Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and the La Jolla Symphony. He is the guitarist and conductor for the ensemble NOISE, and a co-founder of the SoundON Festival of Modern Music, held every January in La Jolla, California. He is a member of the Hennessy 6 jazz sextet and the Trilix Jazz Trio. Each spring, he hosts Through a Glass Darkly: UCCS Symposium on Apocalyptica at the Heller Center for Arts & Humanities.
Colin earned both the Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied guitar with Los Romeros and Stuart Fox, interpretation with Bertram Turetzky, and conducting with Harvey Sollberger and Rand Steiger. He also holds a Masters of Arts in History from UCCS.