Rylee Allen began playing piano at age eight, originally studying classical music and transitioning around age 14 to studying jazz (alongside her present classical studies). She continued studying solo piano whilst engaging in large and small ensemble playing, including working with the following artists in the jazz ensemble setting: Pianist-Composer Bill Cunliffe, Saxophonist-Composer Ron Carter, Trumpeter-Composer John Daversa, and Trombonist-Composer Wycliffe Gordon.

Rylee attended Berklee College of Music as a student of Zahili Gonzalez-Zamora, Laszlo Gardony, and Kevin Harris where she studied Latin, Jazz, and Classical Piano.

She has taught one-on-one lessons, as well as directed small jazz ensembles and jazz big bands, for over five years. In 2022 and 2023, she directed and performed with the Education Collective, a big band consisting entirely of music educators, at Berklee College of Music’s David Friend Recital Hall and the Berklee Performance Center. Rylee is also the Interim Instrumental Music Director at Belmont Hill School for Boys.

As an instructor, Rylee is known for meeting students where they are and fostering their personal musical goals. She is determined to fuse education with enjoyment. Her studies in psychology inform her teaching in that she is aware of the emotional connections required for information to move from short term to long term memory storage. That is, in part, why she believes any education is not long-lasting without fostering joy in the learning process. For beginners, regardless of age, Rylee’s approach includes utilizing Ed Gordon’s Music Learning Theory – which largely practices ear training, audiating, and singing, even to improve their piano studies. She also infuses Orff’s Schulwerk pedagogy, which revolves around play-based learning – it is called playing music, after all. Although it may sound exclusive to children, older students may have become far removed from their child-like fearlessness and creativity, therefore Rylee insists on finding fun and engaging ways to practice, even when the material may appear technical, difficult, or dry.

Rylee recently graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music with her Bachelor of Arts in Music Education, as well as a Minor in Psychology. She hopes to use her studies and personal experiences to instill students with a broader passion for learning, music, and of course, piano playing.