Alison has collaborated with many of today’s major and emerging composers, including Libby Larsen, John Harbison, Thea Musgrave, Ned Rorem, and James Rolfe. She recently coordinated Florestan Recital Project’s 2010 Vanguard Festival, the culminating event of Florestan’s 3-year position as Musical-Artists-in-Residence at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). Also in 2010, Alison was a key participant in a new partnership between VISI and the Canadian Music Centre (Vancouver, BC) which presents premieres, workshops, and outreach with local composers and audiences. In 2009, Alison co-produced Florestan’s BarberFest: The Complete Songs of Samuel Barber in Boston. MA, which included the premieres of many unpublished songs obtained by special permission from the U.S. Library of Congress and Barber’s estate.

In 2008 and 2009, she received rave reviews for her work with Toronto’s Opera In Concert as pianist and music director for Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux and Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, after her lauded 2006 music directorial debut with OIC in Poulenc’sLes Dialogues des Carmelites that featured soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. Alison has performed at venues across North America, including Boston’s Jordan and Symphony Halls and Weill Recital Hall. She has been a recent guest artist with chamber ensembles such as Radius Ensemble and the Buffalo Chamber Players. Her recital with acclaimed Canadian mezzo-soprano Lynne McMurtry, which explored settings of Walt Whitman texts, earned her a review in the Toronto Star stating that "Art doesn’t get any more moving than this."
The 2010-2011 season features a wide variety of activities in new and established repertoire. In addition to lieder recitals in Oberlin and Pittsburgh, Alison is reappearing as guest artist with the Buffalo Chamber Players in a performance of Messiaen’s Quatour pour la fin du temps which integrates original artwork by painter Catherine Burchfield Parker. Alison will also be returning to OIC as Music Director/Pianist for Dvorak’s opera Kate and the Devil, after a residency with Florestan Recital Project and the ETHOS New Music Festival at SUNY Fredonia. She is particularly excited about a new collaboration with the Boston-based WordSong Forum, a unique series of song salons that present new songs in conjunction with food and audience discussion.

Alison received the Grace B. Jackson Prize from Tanglewood Music Center in 2002 acknowledging her 'extraordinary commitment of talent and energy.' Alison attended Oberlin College and Conservatory, and earned a double Master of Music degree in solo and collaborative piano from Cleveland Institute of Music. In May 2007, she received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from New England Conservatory of Music.