Allan Ballinger

Allan Ballinger

​Dr. Allan Ballinger is the principal cellist with Cuatro Puntos, a multi-faceted, arts non-profit organization based in Hartford, CT that is dedicated to intercultural dialogue and universal access through the performance, writing, and teaching of music. He also teaches in the Social Sciences department at Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT, both activities reflecting his lifelong commitment to empowering the disenfranchised and underserved in our society. Dr. Ballinger has masters’ degrees in both modern European history and music education from Central Connecticut State University.  He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Connecticut (2013) in cello performance, with a minor in music history.  His doctoral dissertation, In Quest of the Sacred: Arvo Pärt and Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, combines an analysis of that composer’s music with an exploration of his spirituality, and the historical context in which his unique style of composition evolved.  Allan’s fascination with the Estonian composer reflects his own interest in spirituality and the practice of kriya yoga, and his masters’ thesis studying religious dissidents of the Soviet Union.  His analysis of Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten was recently published in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science and was presented at the annual conference of the Community College Humanities Association in Baltimore, MD. Instruction Dates: July 27-31