Celebrating Life
beauty music art and nature…
Taken in a redwoods forest in Marin County CA
Artist Perspective
Joy…like music is all around us…
Embedded in these memories and in my heart is a sense of joy—the joy of creating, of singing songs made up in the moment simply for the delight of singing them. A spontaneous fusion of melody and words is how poems and songs have always come to me, and still do all these years later.
From these early experiences grew an instinctive understanding that music, nature, and creative expression are deeply connected and can bring happiness and healing.
I have always loved to sing…and dance, color, paint…
Growing up in San Francisco, I could often be found singing in a tree, dancing around the garden, putting on plays in the garage with neighborhood kids, collaging for hours, or watercoloring between swims at the beach. My mother later told me she never worried about me because she could always hear my voice nearby, reassuringly filling the air.
Music seemed to be all around me, and songs were the natural accompaniment to play and imagination. These passions for music, dance, art, and theater became more than childhood play—they shaped the way I see the world and the person and artist I am today.
Celebrating creative connections….
Music, the arts, and nature invite us to play, explore, and discover who we are at any age, what interests us, and inspires our own unique creative connections. They awaken our senses to rich layers of sound, color, texture, movement, rhythm, emotion, story, and ideas. In all their forms, they offer gifts about: how to go with the flow, be open to change, listen, work together, be resilient, find stillness, recognize beauty, breathe and be present.
In this way they nourish the spirit, open our hearts, remind us to celebrate what we share as human beings and appreciating each other.
Making the world a better place….
I love my work as an artist, teacher and performer! Through the songs, classes, concerts and gatherings, workshops, poems, and paintings I share, I hope to bring a little more joy, compassion and kindness into our world one day at time. When we participate in these experiences, we are lifted up—like in a dance where each person contributes something carried by the music that brings us all together. It illuminates the ribbons that connect us.
The arts are essential to our well being and collectively help us feel more alive, more caring, and more able to shine our light a little brighter making the world a better place.
BIO
Allison DeSalvo is a multidisciplinary artist, actor, singer, educator, and songwriter. She began her immersion into the arts at an early age training in dance, theater and voice while growing up in San Francisco. She earned her BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and trained at Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Experimental Theatre Wing, Mannes School of Music, and in Dalcroze Eurythmics' system of music education. She is a member of Actors’ Equity.
During her studies she was introduced to yoga and meditation, later enhanced by meeting her lifelong mentor, Cheryl Stoll UK/US, instigating a transformative journey to understand the connection between the creative arts and their healing benefits for life and living.
Allison has over 40 years of advanced vocal study in NY and PA. She’s led workshops in the US, China and Greece, integrating voice, music, movement and drama.
Her performance career spans groundbreaking music-theatre and opera on Off-Broadway, regional, and international stages including regional and European tours. Career highlights; iterations of Amphigorey, based on the writings and drawings of Edward Gorey directed by American Ballet Theatre’s Daniel Levans; the original Obie Award winning New York and European productions of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine; and Strauss’ Salome at La Scala in Milan starring Montserrat Caballé, both directed by Robert Wilson. Opera and concert credits include Cinderella-Cendrillon, Hansel and Gretel, La Bohème, and The Magic Flute.
Allison is the Owner, Director and Teaching Artist of World of Song since 1993, providing creative arts programs, classes, concerts, stories and music recordings to inspire kids -later adding workshops for adults. For over 30 years she’s shared her unique and intuitive teaching style using a somatic approach to integrate singing, music, movement, drama, and art. She is a certified kids yoga and mindfulness instructor.
She co-founded The Creative Living Room in 2008, a creative arts early childhood and youth program which continues serving thousands of families today at The Park Avenue Community Center in Swarthmore PA, and where she currently teaches and produces family friendly cultural events.
Her two family music albums, award-winning Happiness Is All Around You and It’s a Beautiful World, celebrate the life, learning and nature.
Allison lives in the US, outside Philadelphia, with her husband surrounded by trees and enjoys artistic and community collaborations, cooking, writing poetry, painting, nature and travel.