Allie McIntosh

With her signature violin, heart-beat kick drums, swelling strings, and vocals reminiscent of legends like Alicia Keys and Taylor Swift, McIntosh’s first release, Purgatory Rd EP, shows an artist with musical instincts and abilities well beyond her years. Recorded in part in her bedroom and in part at Minneapolis’s Hideaway Studios with super-producer Joe Mabbott (Snoop Dog, Atmosphere, Doomtree), the EP is a strong debut for an artist who feels as comfortable leading an orchestra’s violin section as she does behind a mic at the studio. Oh, and she’s only a sophomore in high school.

A bonafide wunderkind, Allie was excelling at classical violin, viola, and piano by the time she entered middle school; but her musical curiosities extended far beyond the notes on the page. At only nine, her original song Pachyderm Plea was featured in a video by the international elephant and rhino protection NGO the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From then on, rigorous classical study was paired with explorations on guitar, ukulele, and in Garageband.

Now 15, she is the concertmaster of the prestigious MacPhail youth Chamber Orchestra and has performed at legendary Twin Cities venues like the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis Convention Center, and the Lake Harriet Bandshell. In the summer of 2020, she was selected as the youngest ever participant for NYU’s 2020 Summer Songwriters Workshop. It was this experience, working with legendary writers Phil Galdston, Maia Sharpe, and Barry Eastmond, that led to the creation of Purgatory Rd. With a debut EP out and a second already in the works, Allie McIntosh is only just getting started…and she doesn’t even have her drivers license yet.