Allison Charney Epstein (born 1967) is an American soprano and producer known for her opera performances and recording career. Charney has been described as having "a notably beautiful voice. Expressive, lush and clear."[1] She has performed dozens of leading roles with opera companies across the United States, been a soloist with major orchestras, and has recorded worldwide. She is nominated for a Grammy Award[2] for ALIKE: My Mother's Dream, and is a Choral Producer on Kitt Wakeley's Grammy-nominated album "Seven Seasons." From 2009-2021, she was also Artistic and Executive Director of the classical music series PREformances with Allison Charney in New York City.
Charney was born in 1967 in New York City, the daughter of the actor Jordan Charney and the producer/director Nancy Cooperstein Charney.[3] She has one younger brother, Daniel Charney. The family moved to the Los Angeles area, where Charney first began receiving acclaim for her singing in high school at the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School).
She graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard College (Harvard University) in 1989.[4] While there she studied under -- and developed a lifelong friendship with -- renowned Professor Luise Vosgerchian.[5][6] For her senior honors thesis, she directed Harvard's annual Lowell House Opera.[7]
New York Newsday reports that "it took only a single phrase...to realize that Charney possesses a warm, crystalline...and agile soprano voice" who "captivated listeners with her sensuous, dramatic style." America Oggi notes she "knows how to fully read the book of the female heart...underlining with the incredible lyricism of her voice every change in emotion, every new feeling...and vocal beauty." And the San Jose Mercury News adds that she "possesses a richly satisfying soprano; her register is brilliant but not piercing at the top, resonant at the bottom, warmly secure through the midpoint."
Peter Randsman of Randsman Artists Management represents her.[9]
At opera companies throughout the United States, she sang Puccini heroines, most notably the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and Suor Angelica, both Mimi and Musetta in La Boheme, and Liù in Turandot. Her Mozart interpretations included both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, both Susanna and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Her versatility led her to sing all four heroines in Les Contes d'Hoffman as well as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Micaëla in Carmen, Nedda in Pagliacci, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, and the title roles in Martha, La Traviata, Jenufa, and The Merry Widow.
She has performed with, among others, New York City Opera, the Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, and Opera Memphis.
Concert highlights during this period included performances at Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts.
2010s
In 2009, Charney developed and inaugurated the series PREformances with Allison Charney.[12] PREformances was incubated at the JCC in Manhattan,[13] and after eight seasons the series moved to its permanent home at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center.[14] Notable guest artists included New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, Metropolitan Opera stars William Burden and Maria Zifchak, "Queen of the Flute," Carol Wincenc, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins of Broadway's "Fiddler on the Roof" fame, NY Philharmonic principal cellist Carter Brey, and concert pianists Joel Fan, Navah Perlman, and Blair McMillen, among 100+ others. The series also featured new classical works by composers such as Michael Ching, Moshe Knoll, Mary Ellen Childs, Russell Platt, and Kim D. Sherman.[15]
Charney co-created and co-hosted with pianist Donna Weng Friedman the WQXR mini-series HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY. The program shines a light on women composers, past and present.[16]
She founded the ARK Trio along with cellist Kajsa William-Olsson and pianist Reiko Uchida.
Charney in rehearsal; Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, 2025
2020s
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Charney pivoted to the virtual stage with her 7-part concert and conversation series PREformances: Season of Hope, presented by New York City's historic Town Hall.[17]
She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2022 as a soloist in Kelly Hall-Tompkins' Forgotten Voices, a composite song cycle written by top emerging and established composers with text created by homeless-shelter participants set to music.[18] In 2025, she made her debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.[19]
Recordings
Charney's most recent album is ALIKE: My Mother's Dream. It was released on August 8, 2025; Spotify then named it one of the "Best New Classical Music Releases."[20] The album debuted at #2 on the iTunes Classical Charts (both in the US and Globally)[21] and at #11 on Billboard.[22] In November of 2025, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Featuring the National Symphonia Orchestra under the direction of Grammy-nominated conductor Benjamin Loeb, ALIKE: My Mother's Dream is Charney's tribute to her mother's lifelong mission to focus on what makes us alike as human beings rather than focusing on what separates us.[23]
In 2024, Charney released the single "Bridge to Peace: Invocation" with baritone Will Liverman, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, cellist Peter Seidenberg, and the PREformances-Lviv Chamber Ensemble.[25] Charney and her team traveled to Lviv during the Ukraine-Russia war to record and perform it.[26] The song was written by American composer Kim D. Sherman, and features the line "Make peace on all your lands" sung in 15 world languages. Due to a wartime bombing, power was cut to the city just before the curtain rose. So the show went on using limited lighting from backup generators.[27]
In 2023, Charney and the ARK Trio released ARK RESOUNDING on the Parma Records label.[28] The album reached #1 on Amazon's list of Hot New Releases in Classical.[29]
Also in 2023, Charney was a featured soloist on the AVIE Records recording of Hall-Tompkins' Forgotten Voices.[30]
Charney performed on Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim, the dramatic oratorio commemorating the Holocaust. The piece was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was released in 2011,[31] with a re-release on Navona Records in 2025.
Personal life
She is married to Adam Epstein;[32] they have two sons and live in New York City. A brief discussion of their first lunch together was featured in Daniel Goleman's book Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.[33] She retains Allison Charney as her performing name and Allison Epstein as her personal/married name.
↑Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (2006, Bantam Books)
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