CD available here http://cdbaby.com/cd/allenjamesteague
My mp3 downloads are available at cdbaby, iTunes and Amazon! You can find them by searching my name at each place :)
I'm a soloist but often working on projects with other musicians or narrators. My future focus is collaboration with choreographers and dancers. I will be collaborating with dancers that live near to where ever I perform. Presently scripting story lines for my individual piano compositions for choreography.
A&E channel leased one of my compositions “Birth of a New Day” for a thing about Anna Nicole Smith. I'm on the fence somewhere between proud and mortified about that.
Choreographer - Diana Law (Kennewick, Washington) was recently awarded a commission for choreography by the American Academy of Dance (Houston Dance Theatre) Houston, Texas. She chose my composition "Tale of the Minstrel" and created a piece for 5 dancers (March 2009).
Choreographer - Joy Bond (Cumberland Dance Conservatory) set "Tale of the Minstrel" to dance for performance (University of North Florida, Jacksonville, May 2008).
Choreographer - Megan Abel (Duluth, Minnesota) created dances for performances in Duluth and Aurora with "Rain and Memories", "Forest", "A Poet's Heart" and "The Light and The Dark" (June - October 2008).
A dancer friend in France named Delph made a couple improvisational dance videos with "Tale of the Minstrel" and "Sorrow" and I was thrilled to see those.
One of my piano pieces “The Light and The Dark” was used for background music in a public television documentary about the pen and ink art of Dennis Karl Joern.
I hope one day something I write will be used for a documentary about ants. That would be lovely!
I am receptive to ballet companies and other dance companies using my music and I have enough freedom to attend and/or perform.
If you are planning to use my music for ballet performance let me know so I can put you on my calendar.
If you want to use my music for other production or performance just ask me and I will have my licensing people will help you.
For enjoyment sometimes I write, play, engineer, edit and mix on creative recording projects separately and in varied combination's with friends - Dennis Joern, Ezekiel Kelly, Dawn Teague, Darrell Murphy, Dana Weir and Dave Joern (Folk, Contemporary, Progressive Rock, Blues, Children Music and Alternative).
My social gatherings at home tend to include recording or some collaborative art project.
I've recently written and recorded piano for Leidulf Hafsmo, Elin Rudå and Mr. Lars Ole (Folk/Acoustic) in Norway. I hope to do more of that with them. I like everything they do!
I've written piano for "the drop" and Gina Gregory (Alternative/Rock) in Seattle.
My narrations are kindly spoken by the illustrious Howard Wildin for masculine and Dawn Teague for feminine (along with her varied other characters).
The most enjoyable folk musicians I live near enough to think with often fall asleep when ever they sit for more than eight or nine minutes.
I am receptive to adding piano or keyboards to other people’s songs or albums. Also always ready to write for ballet or modern dance.
Etkilendikleri
Autumn along the outskirts of Tower, Minnesota with the raspy calling of tree perched crows while walking beneath the rattle of birch trees.
Rainy Seattle evenings with my memories and my trusty black notebook on the way to nowhere in particular from the Baltic Room or Kells at Pike Street.
The burnt stump of a tree on the north east edge of Loch Ness near where the crooked red trees stand among the rocky outcroppings.
The ruins of Dunnottar in September when you can hear things from long ago.
Changes in time and geography and pianos and places with coffee...
Neye Benziyor?
I sound pretty close to the brave creatures large and small that reside in my head. The patterns, phrases, melodies, blossoming half thoughts, rhythmic structures, notes, tones and silences that gather there. Some patient, some waking me at all hours...
I like people. I enjoy good conversations with coffee. I appreciate personality and thought. I can not accept rudeness. I like dogs more than cats. I love to travel. I would like to be a better photographer. I write music and stories. Quite a few of my piano compositions have been and are being used for modern dance and new ballets. I'm coming to terms with that :) It is almost impossible for me to pass up a piano once I actually see it. I like designing my own concert posters but after they are distributed I am nearly superstitious about avoiding them. I like to play guitar and mandolin at home. Sometimes I play accordion and concertina. I'm good at building snowmen and fixing things. I like to paint mediocre pictures outside on painting expeditions in the summer. I give them away to friends to hang up in their bathrooms. Some of them actually do. I like to read but rarely do. Lately I have been recording a lot of music with percussion and keyboards that would be perfect for action adventure and apocalyptic movie scores. I am notating that type of music for full orchestra also.
I like to write and record with other people for coffee and name in credit if I like the music. I am sometimes available for touring.
I did not speak until I was three and a half. Slightly to my parents dismay I have rarely stopped. As a child one rainy day I thought to play hooky from talking and reading my encyclopedias and began playing guitar. A couple years later when I was ten I found an organ in the spare room. I would have been drawn to keyboard instruments sooner but I spent summers in the countryside and my English Setter and I were too full of life to linger around indoors.
When I was 15 I decided that you can study for 60 years and still not be the person you are reciting. I stopped procrastinating and began performing all original material at art shows along with random pianos with my trusty tip cup in the lovely town of Sandpoint, Idaho when I was 16 and mildly competent.
I went without owning a piano most of my life and learned to write while playing in public places usually with small crowds gathering. One winter in Virginia, Minnesota I used a sharpie to draw a keyboard on my kitchen table and that helped to write during the middle of the night when all twelve of the pianos through out the town were in locked rooms.
Music is very dear to me and I have enjoyed performing somewhere over a thousand times in different settings across the United States, Canada, Scotland and Prague. I've played in ancient castles, at festivals, in theaters and concert halls, in community centers and amphitheaters.
The following is a video from a concert in Minnesota (solo piano - October 24, 2008) and the other two are improvisational dance videos with my music from a friend named Delphine Manac’h in France. I hope you enjoy!
"A Minstrel's Homecoming" (In Concert - Aurora, Minnesota Auditorium October 24, 2008)
The following improvisational video "Sorrow" arrived from a dancer friend named Delphine Manac’h in France...
Sorrow... sur "Sorrow" d' Allen James Teague. Impro
Improvisation danse sur un morceau de Allen James Teague "Tale of the Minstrel" by Delphine Manac’h in France
I earned my first one month adventure in Europe by playing piano on a sidewalk. That took me about a month hauling a small spinet onto a sidewalk with a going to Europe CD sale and a tip jar. I earned round trip air to London and then bus fare through England, under the channel, through France, Belgium, Germany and then Czech Republic. In Prague I was visiting a friend of a friend named Miloslav who used to be news manager for Radio Free Europe and now does the news part time and organizes bluegrass festivals. A country music producer friend of his named Slavic arranged for me to play 6 performances at the Lucerna. I also played at the Miro gallery while coveting a statue of Venus by Salvador Dali. Explored Prague for about 18 days and found a huge one mile by one mile graveyard with rows of stone buildings, gorgeous statues and vines growing over everything. Looking forward to returning for some music video footage. The Prague castle was nice too with hundreds of gargoyles dripping water from their tongues. In the National Gallery I spent about 45 minutes looking at the first Rembrandt I had ever seen. From across the room you could see a golden necklace on the persons neck and standing about 2 inches away there were just 3 carefully placed specks of gold paint. From Prague I wandered around CZ. I enjoyed visiting Kunta Hora. There was a film crew working on a Christopher Walken movie called "Affair of the Necklace" and the small chapel with the remains of 50,000 catholic church victims was all roped off. One of the crew members was from Ireland and helped me sneak past the very stout woman who seemed sincere in taking her guard job quite serious. We made our way down to the chandler to see the piles of skulls and bone art made by some Cistercian monk in a fit of whimsy. I became lost somewhere outside of Telch after finding something like a hot dog stand with these delicious inventions that cost about a nickle each. I enjoyed 4 of them. I suppose I had become overly pleased with taking a break from the almonds and water I had in my pack and was busy looking for a way to get into a tower and not paying attention to where I was actually going. I do not speak Czech other than some formal and informal pleasantries along with a few phrases that require a few drinks before getting into. Could not understand a thing people were saying and it was nearing dark. Keeping a pen and paper on hand with a few art lessons under my belt helped me to draw a bus which kept me from being lost for very long. After CZ I made my way back to France and then took a ferry over the channel England where I enjoyed feeding some rather large sea gulls. Made it back to London and visited Pan in Hyde Park and then went up to Aberdeen where I took a left to play piano at Findhorn and then spent a week visiting Castles while staying at a B&B in Inverness.
I've been a singer in a metal and punk band. I've been a folk guitarist. I've been a progressive rock keyboardist. I'm a pretty good sound engineer and enjoy mixing. Enjoyed teaching music theory and advanced piano for some remarkable musical minds and I may do that again. I have been on a grant writing committee and that was quite enjoyable. Enjoyed writing newspaper articles and blurbs for my local art's center along with founding and co-organizing a couple festivals which were enjoyable events. I have booked performances for friends and often consider building an international booking agency for a small roster of musicians. Received a few grants for my creative pursuits and I may do that again.
My ideas and I:
I was born in a little town named Aurora in northern Minnesota and most of my music has been written in little towns in little cafes where I have always been able to think while enjoying coffee and small town conversations. I've lived in a few lovely and not so lovely cities and found them to be useful for writing stories with the array of character studies encountered every few moments but I also enjoy the quiet I find in rural areas. I've noticed that coffee can be found or made nearly everywhere so I am always ready to travel. If there is a piano where I'm going that's even better!
I enjoy spare moments going over details for a music drama that I have been working on since 1995. There are 12 scenes, several transitional scenes and 172 characters. I think the storyline is complete and I hope it can work with a versatile cast of 26 and 18 musicians plus stage crew. Many of the vocal parts are complete and I am working on incidental parts. There are only three chorals. I have been notating piccolo, flute, oboe, bassoon, drums and percussion, keyboard, violin, viola, cello, double bass and am debating with clarinet and a couple horns. I rarely enjoy writing for brass because I tend to double the winds with the strings to keep brass from over powering and then I loose time deciding between forgoing some motion and character or adding more instruments. I have been sketching and thinking about set and costume designs. I'm convinced that the next one will assemble in no time at all.
Presently and usually working on story lines for piano and ballet.
I recently sorted music ideas for a new Warren Carlson play to be staged in India. Waiting for our schedules and geography to sync enough to allow a meeting at a piano with coffee.
I have been gathering video footage here and there for music videos. I hope to have something completed eventually!
I hope to fashion my short story "Bear Trap" into a short film. I had costumes made already. When it is time Lars Ole will be narrating film version in Norwegian. There will be English subtitles. Leidulf Hafsmo kindly translated script from English to Norwegian. I have decided on 9 characters (I added six from the spoken word recording of short story) and have completed re-writing the script. I have completed casting except for one female.
Am taking notes for a longer film version of "Goldfish" for later. "Goldfish" will be a bit of an undertaking and I have a few things to learn first.
I plan to focus more thought and energy toward film, music videos and documentaries in the future.
I have written a bit more than sixteen hours of music. I enjoy telling stories in concert and I have decided to cut down on string breaking. It is possible to become unhinged while hurling through a certain passage of "Temptation of Saint Anthony" and accidents do happen! I love audiences and I love entertaining them. I also respect old people quite a bit and I have always sought out and played at nursing homes in towns and cities all over the United States for free when ever I have had an hour or two to spare. Some people go all year without a visitor so we should do what we can.
Aside from music, writing and art I have always enjoyed adventures. I like epic adventures that begin a couple hours after flying over those huge ice cubes out there by Greenland. I like traveling into remote eastern European locations where no one understands a word I'm saying and I have no clue how to read signs and everything requires drawing a picture or non verbal semantics. I enjoy history and love walking in old and ancient places.
Education:
I studied piano for three months under Hilpi Kantola from the Helsinki Conservatory of Music through a kind gift from my step Father. I was a terrible student and at a recital I had neglected to prepare the compositions she assigned me so instead I premiered three original Allen James Teague pieces in front of six-hundred people. It was near the end of the program and I can imagine she was horrified when the first few notes were struck. I did these crazy acrobatics flinging my hands in the air throughout and when the last notes crashed I turned to see my first full house standing ovation.
I studied music theory and notation under concert violinist Gerard Mathes. To save time I started bringing "Principles of Orchestration" and a couple highlighters out to coffee. I mostly learned and am still learning through trying to keep up with my imagination.
In the future:
Some day while I'm still spry enough to carry a suitcase I may retire to a cottage with a guest house for recording and company maybe near Inverness, Scotland. I have traveled all over Scotland and have found the Inverness area to be suitable for most of my endeavors. I also love Prague but it is a bit too busy with tourists. Will not rule out southern France where I have not explored enough to qualify a definitive. I hope to learn more about Norway soon. I would most likely be happy with something within walking distance to a pub where I can compose, write, breath and think into olde age. Some days I think about retiring to northern Minnesota to wander the forests and hills through the evening fog among the birch with my concertina or accordion. That would be lovely... The world is really quite large and I have not seen everything that I would like to.
Further in the Past:
Some time before I was born I had a great aunt Ann Palkie, a concert pianist out of Minneapolis. She enjoyed staying busy and to fill the idle moments she founded and directed 8 music conservatories throughout Minnesota continuing until her death at 37 years old.
My grandfather, Warren Teague enjoyed many years performing and as 2nd bass in the Minneapolis Apollo Club. At 19 years old he was the youngest member to be accepted into the 200 man choir. He was the book keeper for the city of Minneapolis and later in life he put his organizational skills to use staying busy organizing most of the fairs, parades and festivals in the Esko and Cloquet, Minnesota area. He did a lot of work toward making sure poorer families had enough food and there were many, many, many people at his funeral.
"Unique and creative, Allen James Teague's music ranges from delicate to intense, passionate to empowering. It is music that can touch the lives of all ages." Joyce- (former Board Member of CREATE Center for the Arts, Newport, WA)
Thank you very much for your very high intellectual level, brightness, clearness of sound and brilliance in yours performance all the world! But for me the important in yours performance is the way you have the capacity to building the musical phrase with a particular consideration. The maturity of the thought and specially this unrivaled way that you know to base on the structure of the composition that your performance." Athanasia Tzanou (Paris, France).
"Enchanting" Leslee Smith- (The Symes, Hot Springs, MT).
"Teague's music goes straight to the heart" Martin Dvorak- (Petrof, Prague, CZ).
"Powerful" Valleta O'Day- (Couer d'Alene Cultural Center, Cd'A, ID).
"No-one has ever put more into a Panida concert" Karen Bowers- (Panida Theater, Sandpoint, ID).
"Mr. Teague,
My son and I attended your performance at the Thomas center Wednesday night. We both thoroughly enjoyed the evening. We attended to meet a requirement of a music appreciation course we are taking together at Lake City community college (we have to write 3 papers on 3 live performances). I admit neither of us were looking forward to an evening of classical piano, little did we know what was ahead. My son Alex who has never had any interest in any musical forms other than hard punk rock, was enchanted, bought 5 of your cd's, and now wants to learn to play the piano. I believe you did more to broaden him musically in 2 hours than I have been able to do in his 16 years on this planet. I thank you greatly." -Sincerely, L.L.S. (Thomas Center, Spanish Court, Gainesville, FL. May 29th, 2002).
"North Idaho piano phenom Allen James Teague is an astonishing talent, a knock out of a performer" Aunties Bookstore- (Spokane, WA).
"Allen James Teague plays grandly pronounced notes separated by memories and depth" KD -(The Local Planet, Spokane, WA).
Hi, Recently someone gave my six year old autistic grand-daughter an accordion. It's small and she is really loving all the keys and movement. Have you had an experience with autistic kids and music? I'm wondering about lessons. Tisha is very fast with computer keys and she has a light touch. Do you have any advice? Hugs, Sylvia
Hi, Teague Everything well? :) I’m here cos I’m searching for an eurodance singer, no matter if it’s male or female cos I’m planning a commercial dance track and, as you can guess, a singer in this style of music is essential. I wonder if you’d be interested or know about someone who can be interested, of course :) The other reason why I’m here is that I’m searching for remixers for my new techtrance tune ‘Give It A Try’. It will be released in Super 6 Records (Germany) and LAD Records (Portugal). I’m asking radio stations, listeners, etc for support and feedbacks too. I’m trying to be as brief as I can with this comment but, as you can see, I’m not good at all in this :/ Big big thanks for stopping by and much respect:)
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