Allen Otte was in 1972 a cofounder of America’s first professional percussion ensemble, the Blackearth Percussion Group, and in 1979 of Percussion Group Cincinnati with whom he toured for decades throughout the world performing new and experimental music created for him and his colleagues. Otte now regularly appears as a soloist, including the presentation of his own creative work often in residencies centered around the theme of performing social justice; the evening-length work The Innocents, with John Lane, has toured nationally for some years. He is the regular percussionist with the medieval music group Trobar, and professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati. In 2017 Percussion Group Cincinnati was inducted into the International Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.