Allen Raymond Shearer, born on October 5, 1943, in Seattle, Washington, is an American composer and baritone known for his contributions to vocal music and opera. Shearer's early musical experiences were primarily as a singer, and much of his compositional work focuses on the voice, with a significant emphasis on opera in his later career. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in 1972, and furthered his education at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he received diplomas in concert singing and opera. His composition teachers included notable figures such as Fred Lerdahl, Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie, and Max Deutsch, with whom he studied in Paris.

Shearer has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Rome Prize Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Award, the Sylvia Goldstein Award, a Charles Ives Scholarship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also been a resident at the MacDowell Colony. In addition to his compositional work, Shearer teaches voice in Special Programs at the University of California at Berkeley.

Critics have noted the lyric quality of Shearer's music, which, while recalling postwar serialism in its rhythms and textures, relies on traditional counterpoint and tonal centers. His operatic works, such as "The Dawn Makers" and "Middlemarch in Spring," have been praised for their singability and distinct musical personality. His music is described as pleasantly dissonant, with a sound that is both memorable and securely structured.