Esther Allan (née Boyarsky; April 28, 1914 – July 21, 1985) was an Americancomposer,pianist and organist.^[1]

Esther Allan was born Esther Boyarsky inSuwałki, Poland. Her father was a cantor. She began playing the piano when she was only five, and took her first piano lessons with her mother. Her family moved to England when she was very young, and then to America.

She began working inNew York City, both as a "classical" pianist (for example she performedBrahms'sPiano Concerto No. 2 andGershwin'sConcerto in F during a recital at Carnegie Hall)^[2] and as a "jazz" pianist, in the vein of the "classical jazz" initiated byGeorge Gershwin andDana Suesse.

In the early 1940s she married American jeweler and department store owner Norman Allan (1908–1999), to whom she dedicated herNorman Concerto,^[3] a 6-minute piece for piano and orchestra in the vein of theWarsaw Concerto, which gained some success at the time and launched her as a composer. Once married, she used only her "American" name Allan, abandoning her maiden name.^[1]

She worked for a period of time as the pianist inPhil Spitalny's all-girlHour of Charm Orchestra,^[4] as well as an affiliate pianist of Aileen Shirley's all-girl orchestra, "The Minoco Maids Of Melody".

As a composer, aside from "the Norman Concerto", she wrote other short pieces for piano and orchestra:Ocean Rhapsody,^[5]Romantic Concerto^[6]... described as being "an exact synthesis betweenRachmaninov,Gershwin and theWarsaw Concerto",^[7] andMeditation for Piano, Harp and Strings,^[8] all homages to her native Poland. These works, as well as "the Norman Concerto", were regularly performed by Allan, accompanied by the Detroit Sinfonietta, conducted by Felix Resnick. A vinyl album of their performances was published in the 1960s.^[9]

She arranged for piano and orchestra several works, including classical hits asChopin'sNocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 andBeethoven'spiano sonata No. 17, "The Tempest", and variety songs as "Bethie's Theme", "Enchantment", and "Freddie's Running".^[10]

She composed numerous short works for piano solo for her own recitals, around thirty songs, some chamber musics (including "Autumn Nocturne" for piano and harp) as well as some larger-scaled orchestral concert works.

She lived inDetroit, Michigan, with her husband and four children. Her oldest child, Sally Allan Alexander, became a piano teacher. Allan performed with several local musical ensembles and hosted many classical piano performances.

She died on July 21, 1985, in Detroit, aged 71, from heart failure.^{[citation needed]}

• 1914 births
• 1985 deaths
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 20th-century American classical pianists
• American women classical pianists
• American women classical composers
• Polish emigrants to the United States
• 20th-century American women pianists
• Classical musicians from New York (state)
• 20th-century American women composers

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages where birth or death is being automatically determined
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2015