Richard Allan's first involvement with TSO was at our first concert when he played in the Trombone section. As the orchestra progressed he continued to be an active member as a player and a member of the committee.

In the 1990s his interest in conducting developed and he worked on many local musical theatre productions. His first main show as musical director was 'Oliver' staged by the Arbroath Musical Society in 1996. He went on to be musical director of over 50 shows in the area including Phantom of the Opera , Les Miserables (for 3 different companies), Singing in the Rain and the Scottish premiere of Titanic the musical.

Richard is also musical director of the Friends group in Arbroath who have presented a number of concerts over the years for many charities including C.H.A.S Scotland, Macmillan Nurses, Brain Tumour research and MND. Recently these concerts have taken the form of a 'prom' concert with full choir and orchestra.

Richard continues to work with the Friends group as well as being Musical Director for Arbroath Musical Society. During the day he is part of the Essential Skills team at Dundee and Angus College teaching mathematics.

Richard was appointed Assistant Conductor of TSO in July 2015, having previously helped Andrew by taking several orchestra rehearsals, and took on the role of conductor in July 2016.