About Me

Jacques Allen is a London-based composer, pianist and organist. His music has been recognised for its ‘poetic imagination, structural clarity and sensitive engagement with intercultural dialogue’ (Emmanuel Sowicz), and is characterised by a synthesis of minimalist, serialist and neoclassical influences.

He graduated in Music from the University of Oxford in 2022, where he studied with Martyn Harry and served as President of the Magdalen College Music Society. In 2025, he completed a Master’s degree in Composition at the Royal College of Music with Distinction, studying under Kenneth Hesketh. During this time, he collaborated with ensembles including the RCM Symphony Orchestra, RCM New Perspectives, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, the Castalian String Quartet, and the CHROMA Ensemble.

Jacques’ work has received growing international recognition. In 2024, he won the Royal College of Music Large Ensemble Competition, leading to the premiere of Elegy for the Feminine Man in the Amaryllis Fleming Hall. In 2025, Monkey Paw was nominated for the Ivan Juritz Prize. This year, he was awarded the inaugural Oxford–Japan Prize for Composition for his solo piano work A Plum’s Haiku, unanimously selected by the jury and set to premiere at Suntory Hall, Tokyo by Steinway Artist Yuko Sano.

Alongside his compositional work, Jacques maintains an active performance career as a pianist and organist, appearing in venues including Clare College, Cambridge and the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch. Since 2022, he has served as Director of Music at St. Margaret and All Saints Church, Canning Town, where he directs the choir and presents weekly organ performances. He is also an experienced teacher, working with students of all ages in both private and school settings, with pupils regularly achieving distinctions and merits in ABRSM examinations.