Our 1994 winner is Allison Weiss. After graduating from Redmond High School, Allison Weiss has received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, Cum Laude, from University of Puget Sound, a Master of Arts in Music from University of Portland, Oregon, and a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from University of Chicago. She has traveled extensively in Latin American countries and is fluent in Spanish, using her language skills to both teach and translate.
Currently Allison is living in Greater Salt Lake City and is Learning Designer/Facilitator at Instructure, Inc. which is an Information Technology and Services industry. She formerly was Language and Technology Coordinator of Hispanic Studies at Illinois Wesleyan University in central Illinois.
Allison is also both founder and president of LAASA (Latin American Art Song Alliance). LAASA is an organization which is designed to coordinate the efforts of scholars, musicians, and educators to promote Latin American classical music, beginning with the solo vocal repertoire also known as art song. On November 20, 2010, Allison Weiss, soprano, and Nancy Pounds, pianist, performed twelve Argentine lullabies as part of The New Music Cafe series organized by the IWU School of Music. The lullabies, composed between 1919 and 1993, represented a wide variety of styles and perspectives on maternity, childhood, and creole identities in urban and rural Argentina. The works of several Latin American artists accompanied the English translations of the songs, which were projected on the stage next to the performers.
Allison's career goals include designing and using technologies that will improve teaching and learning in the classroom and gaining additional expertise in the areas of international copyright laws, sheet music publishing and digital music distribution. She loves the Spanish language and continues to teach Spanish classes at IWU. Visit Allison's web site at www.iwu.edu/~aweiss.
