Allison Monroe performs, researches, and teaches historical musical repertoires on period instruments. She specializes in music from the medieval era through the early 19th c., playing vielle, rebec, harp, psaltery, violin and viola from Renaissance through classical styles, and singing. Her performing credits include the Newberry Consort, Boston Camerata, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Piffaro, Apollo’s Fire, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Les Délices, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Washington Bach Consort.
Allison’s scholarship is expressed through programming for concerts, recordings, outreach ventures, and residency activities. She co-founded and serves as Artistic Director for Trobár, a Cleveland- based band of voices and instruments dedicated to bringing medieval music to modern audiences. Alongside a regular season in Cleveland, Trobár tours, performs residencies, issues a free monthly podcast called Trobár Talks, and looks forward to releasing its first album in 2023. With colleague Cynthia Black, Allison recorded a soon-to-be-released album of classical violin and viola duets. She was also the Artistic Director and a performer on Fair and Princely Branches, an album of music for the Jacobean princes, released in 2020.
As the newly-appointed Director of the Five College Early Music Program, Allison looks forward to beginning a new chapter of her teaching career. She will chart a vision for the program, teach academic courses, organize activities and ensembles, run the flagship Collegium ensemble, and oversee the Arthur Loeb Early Music Instrument Collection. Previously, from 2018-2023, Allison taught at Case Western Reserve University, where she had earned a DMA in Historical Performance Practice in 2017. During her time teaching at Case, she variously coached the medieval and Renaissance ensembles, directed the Baroque Orchestra, oversaw the Kulas Instrument Collection, and taught medieval performance practice.