After graduation from high school, she attended the New England Conservatory in Boston where she studied under Bernard Zhighera and later Marcel Grandjany.

[12] In addition to her teaching at CalArts, Allen taught and lectured internationally on harp and improvisation and held annual summer courses for young harpists.

[13] In a 2014 essay on her teaching philosophy Allen wrote: Once a learner understands clearly that an instructor is only an authority by way of experience, the avenues for co-education have been opened.

The concert, part of the celebrations for the 50th year of India's independence, was broadcast live on Indian national television and radio.

[17][18] Stolyar on piano and Allen on harp and the Korean kayagum performed again in a concert at the Roy O. Disney Music Hall in 2011 and released the album Together that same year.

Her book, Passage of Desire: Improvisation and the Human Journey was unfinished at the time of her death,[21] but completed and published by colleague and collaborator Nicholas Chase (musician) in 2024.