Blake Allen

Blake Liahona Allen (born July 21, 1988, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American composer and viola player who is most known for writing Insomnia—which debuted at Carnegie Hall— and The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie, music directing the 2019 revival of Over Here!, writing the theme song for the talk show Doris Dear’s Gurl Talk, and appearing on Shade: Queens of NYC. Early life and education Blake Liahona Allen was born in Tucson, Arizona on July 21, 1988, the fourth child of pianist Marsha Allen (née Wilcox) and San Allen, an engineer and chief operating officer for Winchester Electronics. His family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida shortly after his birth, then to Gainesville before eventually settling in El Paso, Texas, where he spent most of his youth. He grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was in the viola sections of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Las Cruces Symphony while attending Franklin High School. Allen studied viola performance at Brigham Young University and worked at the Primrose International Viola Archive at Lee Library. Career Allen was artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2014 and was principal of