Allison DeFrancesco is a recent graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where she studied with Leone Buyse. She also holds a master’s degree in flute from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois. Her previous teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Jonathan Keeble, Hideko Amano, and Shanna Gutierrez.

Allison currently resides in Houston, Texas where she works as a freelance musician and teaches flute, recorder, and piano. She has been a regular substitute for the 2022-2023 season with the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. She will also be joining the Sarasota Opera as Second Flute & Piccolo beginning in February of 2023. As an orchestral musician, Allison was a regular flute/piccolo substitute in the San Antonio Symphony from 2017-2020 and has also performed with the Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Shreveport Symphony. Chamber music engagements also include appearances with Loop38 and the Monarch Chamber players, both based in Houston. In a recent performance of chamber music alongside members of The Cleveland Orchestra, Allison was praised as "a tower of strength on flute" by the South Florida Classical Review.

Allison has been the top prize winner in several national competitions including the Young Artist Competitions of the San Diego Flute Guild, Houston Flute Club, Florida Flute Association, and the Flute Society of Washington. She has also placed in competitions for the Seattle Flute Society, South Carolina Flute Society, Austin Flute Society, Arizona Flute Society, Flute Society of Kentucky, and Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia. Additionally, she received 3rd prize in the 19th International Friedrich Kuhlau Flute Competition with her colleague Hunter O’Brien in the 2 Flutes & Piano category.

Allison has toured twice internationally with the Orchestra of the Americas in both Europe and Mexico, and can be heard playing piccolo on two albums recorded with  Carlos Miguel Prieto and Linn Records, which include Copland’s Third Symphony and Manuel de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat. She has also spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, National Orchestral Institute, and the Eastern Music Festival.