The Music of Talk

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With musical examples and the insight gained in a 40-year career combining the narrative and emotional connections between music and talk, master storyteller and broadcaster Tom Allen brings you on a stirring and inspiration journey to the deepest roots of human communication where melody and meaning become one.

Tom Allen was born in Montreal and went to school there, at Marianapolis College and McGill, before finishing degrees at Boston University and Yale.  He worked as a bass trombonist in New York City when there were still places you just didn’t go, then in Toronto and on tour with the Great Lakes Brass. He began working for the CBC on his 30th birthday, a very long time ago, and at the time of writing is still there.  He has since written three books, been a Resident Artist with Soulpepper Theatre, delivered storytelling workshops at various University music programs and at the Banff Centre, been named an honourary Doctor of Letters by Thompson Rivers University, hosted countless concerts across the country and written a series of cabaret storytelling shows he calls Chamber Musicals, including From Weimar to Vaudeville, The Missing Pages, A Poe Cabaret, Being Lost and the latest: JS Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow.  Tom Allen lives in Toronto with his beloved, the harpist Lori Gemmell, their son, and a very enthusiastic dog.