Robin Allen

Student

“The music department is much like a family. It’s become my second home.”

Robin Allen has spend seven years—“off and on”—at SMC. But when she became a mentor student last year, things changed dramatically for her. “I got much more personalized attention,” Robin says. She explains that as a mentor student in the music department, she takes six units of music, gets a one-on-one lesson with her mentor teacher weekly and sings twice a semester at student recitals.

Robin’s mentor teacher is Sue Ann Pinner. “She’s given me a lot of detailed help to refine my voice,” says Robin. “I learned a great deal in my voice classes. But I was never sure if I was doing it properly. Sue Ann can tell me exactly what I’m doing wrong. And, she adds, “I feel a lot more comfortable now when I go to auditions.”

Singing is only one of Robin’s interests. As a theatre arts major, her professional focus is on musical theater, where she can combine her singing and acting skills. She’s performed in several SMC productions including the musical “110 Degrees in the Shade” which she says “was my biggest ‘stretch’ in acting since I’d never done a comedic part before.”

Robin considers her biggest role so far to have been playing the lead in “The Fantastiks” in a production at a theater in Palos Verdes six years ago. “It was a small theatre but an elaborate production,” says Robin. “It was a landmark experience and I’ll always remember it.”

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