American Prize winner Allan Laiño, D.M.A. (“lah-EE-nyoh” or / la ‘ʔi njo / ) is a conductor, composer, singer, educator, and keyboard artist in the DC metro area. He serves as the Artistic Director of the Congressional Chorus, a multi-generational family of choruses that champion the diversity of American music. As a second-generation Filipino-American with wide-ranging musical influences, he aims to create an environment in which all voices can flourish.

Laiño has prepared choral ensembles for the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, BSO Pops and Jack Everly, National Symphony Orchestra Pops and Steve Reineke, Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience, and the Josh Groban Live National Tour. He has conducted onstage at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Kennedy Center Opera House, and Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center. His performances have been televised on programs such as the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors, CNN’s Live from the Capitol: January 6, One Year Later, and EWTN’s Annual Christmas Concert for Charity broadcast to over 140 countries worldwide. As Co-Conductor of the Sunday Night Singers in 2012, he earned First Prize at the World Choir Games in the Mixed Chamber Choir Champions Division. He is the 2018 winner of The American Prize—Community Chorus Division, and was a finalist in two categories for the 2020 American Prize in Composition. In 2021, he was the awardee in music for The Outstanding Filipinos in America presented at Carnegie Hall.

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Dr. Laiño’s work and expertise with young singers plays a pivotal role in molding the future of choral and operatic music. As Principal Conductor of the National Children’s Chorus, he conducts the Premier Ensemble, NCC’s most advanced treble choir, and Scholars, a college preparatory ensemble whose alumni have gone on to study at top universities and conservatories. As Principal Conductor of the National Youth Opera Academy, he conducts annual productions, guiding and nurturing the next generation of operatic talent. 

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As Co-Artistic Director of DC-based professional ensemble, Bridge, Laiño produced, edited, directed, and sang in America, You’re Beautiful, an award-winning short film that merged spoken word and choral music to examine racism in America. The film won the 2021 Black Truth Film Festival and 2021 Queens Underground International Black and Brown Film Festival, and was an official selection for numerous film festivals.

From 2016-2021, Laiño served as a lecturer in choral music and conducting at the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art at The Catholic University of America. During his doctoral studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, Laiño directed the University Chorale. He served as Assistant Conductor for the Chamber Singers when they performed Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with the BSO under Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Cantatas 63 and 110 with the NSO under Helmuth Rilling, and were featured performers at the 10th World Choral Symposium, . He served as assistant conductor (La Bohème, Die Zauberflöte, Die Fledermaus) and chorus master (Idomeneo, La Bohème, and Die Zauberflöte) for the Maryland Opera Studio. As part of the MOS New Works Initiative, he conducted the East Coast premiere of Jack Perla’s opera Love/Hate in 2014.

Laiño is a former member of the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the resident professional chamber choir for which he has also guest-conducted in Masses. He has sung with groups such as Bridge, The Thirteen, the Yale/Norfolk Music Festival Chamber Choir, The Trinity Chamber Orchestra, the Sunday Night Singers, the Horizon Chamber Choir, and the Pacific Chorale. 

Dr. Laiño completed his D.M.A. in Choral Conducting at the University of Maryland, College Park (2015). He earned his M.F.A in Choral Conducting (2009), and B.A. in Voice/Music (2006) at the University of California, Irvine.