Allen Feinstein is a composer and conductor of film music, classical music, and musical theater. He has been Director of Bands at Northeastern University since 1990, where he teaches courses in musical theatre, conducting, and music theory.

He has written a number of pieces for narrator and orchestra that have been performed widely, including The Little Engine That Could.  The Akron Symphony and Grand Rapids Symphony performed the work a total of thirteen times in 2017.

In October 2011 two of Prof. Feinstein’s compositions were performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, including a new work, I Was a Teenage Clarinetist, commissioned and premiered by Marguerite Levin.

Feinstein composed and conducted his scores accompanying silent films on the National Film Preservation Foundation’s DVD compilation Treasures 3, which looked at how early filmmakers addressed social issues. The DVD set was on many ‘best of’ lists for 2007, including those of The New York Times, Time Magazine, and The New Yorker. He is completing a new musical about the early silent film era entitled Plotnik’s Moving Picture Palace. He is writing the play as well as the music and lyrics for this show.

Adam Frey, guest soloist for the Boston Pops, recorded Feinstein’s Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra with the New Zealand Symphony, which was released on the MSR Classical Label in June 2007. The concerto won the prestigious Phillips Award for compositional excellence from the International Tuba Euphonium Association for the best work written for the instrument between 2002 and 2006.

Other classical compositions include a work for piano, oboe, and bassoon, Three Dances, which was a featured work at the International Double Reed Society conference in June, 2010 in Norman, Oklahoma. Performed with original choreography, the work was reprised with dance in July, 2010 in Salt Lake City.

Feinstein’s has written the music for several musicals, including At Swim Two Boys, which received a professional production as part of the Northeastern Center for the Arts concert series in 2007. He also serves as Music Supervisor for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, an organization dedicated to creating and producing a new musical each year.

As a conductor Feinstein has led many ensembles in accompanying silent films, and has served as music director for numerous musical theater productions. As Music Director of the NU Band program he has led multi-media concerts, children’s concerts, and themed musical events, and hosted numerous guest composers and soloists, including five members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  He has coached many student conductors, and collaborated with dozens of student soloists.

Feinstein’s compositions have been performed by the New Zealand Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Banda Municipal de Jaen (Spain), Virginia Symphony, US Army Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Peoria Symphony, and many other professional orchestras. The Northeastern Wind Ensemble, Concert Band and Orchestra, Harvard Wind Ensemble, University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble, Brown University Wind Symphony, and many other college ensembles have also performed his works.