Palma Allan studied music at Glasgow University and Notre Dame College of Education graduating as a teacher in 1981. The same year, having studied Singing with Marilyn J. Smith, she also became a Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music, London. Palma Allan MBE Dip.T.Mus LTCL
Palma Allan studied music at Glasgow University and Notre Dame College of Education graduating as a teacher in 1981. The same year, having studied Singing with Marilyn J. Smith, she also became a Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music, London.
She has taught in Inverclyde for most of her career and has been Deputy Headteacher at Inverclyde Academy for the past seven years having previously been Principal Teacher of Music at Notre Dame High School for twelve years. Throughout this time she has performed with various choirs including the Scottish Festival Singers and the Glasgow Phoenix Choir. In 1998 she initiated the Choral Development Programme within Inverclyde founding the Inverclyde Schools’ Junior and Senior Choirs and going on to establish Inverclyde Voices as a new adult choir in the area.
Over the years her work with choirs has taken her to Trento in Italy in 2003 to work with Dr Colin Durrant, and then in 2005 and 2007 to the CME Institute at Toronto University, Canada to work with Dr Doreen Rao and her choirs gaining the CME Artist Teacher Diploma. In 2008 she took the Inverclyde Junior Choir to Graz in Austria to take part in the 5th World Choir Games where they won a silver medal and were ranked in the world’s top twenty five children’s choirs. She has showcased the Inverclyde Choirs many times in the biennial BBC Choir of the Year Competition reaching the Finals in Buxton, Manchester and Cardiff. Her choirs have also performed live at BBC Proms in the Park, Children in Need and have featured on several CD/DVD recordings including Highland Heartbeat for PBS Network on American TV.
In 2005, Palma was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship by the Rotary Club for her services to music in the local community. She also received a Citizenship Award from the Grand Lodge in 2008 for her work with choirs and in 2010 she was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for Services to Education. She continues to work with the Inverclyde Senior Choir and Inverclyde Voices promoting the benefits of choral singing to audiences far and wide.