From Cork in Ireland, Allin Gray is Chief Executive of the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts from the Cork School of Music. As a no-longer-practicing guitar player, Allin is a musical pluralist, having performed classical, jazz, rock, drum and bass (using real instruments), and folk.
As a board member with more than 40 years cumulative experience, Allin has been a board member of the European Orchestra Federation and the International Music Council as well as being a founding Director of two independent arts companies. He has been involved as a volunteer in environmental groups for a number of years including time as a Director and Secretary of the Cork Environmental Forum.
Allin was particularly active during the pandemic, helping numerous groups start and develop their online engagement with existing and new supporters. In addition, prior to and during the pandemic, he developed projects that pushed forward the use of technology in music teaching and participation and continues this work today.
As a campaigner, Allin worked as part of the National Campaign for the Arts from 2009 until 2012 and took a significant part in campaigns to save the European Union Youth Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. He has also played a part in a number of environmental campaigns.
Allin is a constant self-educator and always has at least one book on the go covering topics such as physics, evolutionary biology, psychology, politics and the environment. Most recently, he has completed training in facilitation and transformative organising. He has a talent for translating complex ideas and jargon into language that is accessible to most everyone (not necessarily in evidence on this site) and is focussing on this in his voluntary work at present.