McDuffie Center Alum: Allyson Cohen, Violinist with a Social Mission - Philadelphia Sinfonia News

By Diane Penneys Edelman

A career in music can be challenging, in so many ways. What instrument to play? Whether to take private lessons and join a school band or orchestra? Music camp? A college major in music? A music career ….. or a “music-plus” career? Allyson Cohen’s career in music certainly falls into the category of “music plus,” and she has shared her exciting journey with us.

Allyson “knew from the age of 12 that [she] wanted nothing else than to play violin” … and made a PowerPoint “to convince my mom to take me out of school and let me be homeschooled.” Now that’s persuasion!

Allyson joined Sinfonia Players in 8th grade and performed with the advanced orchestra all through high school. She especially loved the “side-by-side” performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She remembers performing the third movement of Dvorak’s 8th Symphony seated next to William Polk, who suggested that she “go up to this harmonic in the G string.” She thought this “such a cool idea” that she uses that fingering whenever she performs that symphony!

And this was only the beginning.

Allyson went on to earn her bachelor’s degree at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, where she had many formative musical experiences, such as performing with musicians from the Tokyo Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Ehnes Quartet, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

And then what Allyson calls “the best thing to happen” for her career and her life took place — she met Danielle Belen, Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, at the Center Stage Strings Festival and knew that she wanted Ms. Belen to be her next teacher — an experience that gave Allyson great confidence in her musical ability, as well as her approach to her instrument and career. While at Michigan, Allyson founded the Mia Quartet, an ensemble that has garnered several awards and turned into a quartet of best friends.

At Michigan, Allyson also had the opportunity to be mentored and coached by Annie Fullard of the Cavani Quartet, who “changed Allyson’s life” and essentially “made” Allyson love chamber music, want to share chamber music, and to become an activist as well — by sharing music with those who don’t have access to or the ability to have music in their lives.

And how did she do this?

With the guidance of mentors, Allyson founded the Unison Chamber Music Collective1 to make musical performance available to those in prisons, shelters, and recovery centers, and offer field trips to those who are ready and able to attend professional concerts as well. And — Unison also commissions up to five student composers to premiere and record their work!

“We want Unison to operate in as many cities in the mid-west as possible. Right now, I’m focusing on our Detroit operations. In efforts to scale the model that we have going in a sustainable way, we will be partnering with the University of Michigan starting in the fall” to expand the number of students involved and extend operations beyond Unison’s current locale.

“One of our board members, Janet Jarriel, told me a piece of advice that stuck with me: ‘Just start doing something and figure it out as you go.’ I didn’t know anything about founding a non-profit, but that’s what I did — just learned as I went along.” It is no surprise that Allyson, in her final year of the Master’s degree program, won the 2024 EXCEL prize, the University of Michigan School of Music’s prize for entrepreneurship in music! Allyson, Sinfonia is so proud of you and your work, and we wish you well in these efforts!

Please feel free to contact Allyson at aviolin400@gmail.com. You can also find videos of Unison Chamber Music performances online and on the Unison Chamber Music Collective Facebook page.