Joe McAllister

Joe McAllister joined the music faculty at the University of Northern Colorado in 2022, where he serves as opera coach. He teaches Vocal Coaching for Singers, Techniques of Vocal Coaching for Pianists, Chamber Music Literature for Keyboard, and has taught the aural skills sequence. He oversees the work of the piano division’s Graduate Assistants as well as UNC’s team of staff pianists.

As opera coach at UNC, he has worked on productions of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, and Amadeo Vives’s Los Bohemios, among others. Recently, he coached UNC’s world premiere of Glen Cortese’s opera 221B: A Sherlock Holmes Opera. During his doctoral studies, he assisted with the preparation of Bernstein’s Candide, Mark Adamo’s Little Women, Weber’s Der Freischütz, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, and Britten’s Albert Herring.

Joe had his conducting debut in 2023, conducting performances of Philip Glass’s In the Penal Colony and Amy Beach’s Cabildo, the latter of which was UNC Opera Theatre’s first production of an opera by a female composer. He has also conducted Bizet’s Le docteur miracle, Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon, as well as selections from William Walton’s Façade: An Entertainment as part of UNC’s Poudre River Chamber Players series.

He is an active performer in the northern Colorado region and has appeared as pianist in the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the UNC Symphony Orchestra, the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Dance Theatre Orchestra. He has performed with members of the Colorado Symphony and frequently collaborates with his colleagues and students in UNC’s School of Music. He is also the rehearsal pianist and coach for the Greeley Chamber Chorale. In 2025, he had the pleasure of performing Mozart’s concerto in C minor, K. 457 with Maestro Dan Frantz and the Greeley Chamber Orchestra.

Joe has found a deep source of inspiration from nature and exercises this interest through a love of hiking. He has completed the 491-mile Colorado Trail, the 96-mile West Highland Way in Scotland, the 64-mile Ocean to Lake trail in South Florida, and the 177-mile Der Westweg in the Black Forest of Germany. Since moving to Colorado, he has climbed Longs Peak, Pikes Peak, Quandary Peak, and Colorado’s tallest mountain, Mount Elbert. A native of South Florida, he has enjoyed much canoe camping throughout the Everglades and Florida Bay.

Prior to his appointment at UNC, Joe served as instructor of piano at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado as well as staff pianist at Florida Atlantic University and Metropolitan State University of Denver. Joe received his undergraduate degree in piano performance from the Boston Conservatory, his graduate degree in piano performance from Florida Atlantic University, and earned his Doctor of Arts degree in collaborative piano from the University of Northern Colorado. His primary mentors were Harold Brown, Max Levinson, Dr. Heather Coltman, Dr. Edward Turgeon, and Dr. Willem van Schalkwyk. A fervent enthusiast of the composer Olivier Messiaen, Joe wrote his dissertation on the song cycle Chants de terre et de ciel for soprano and piano.