CANCELLED: A Tribute to Alan Hacker OBE

Very sadly we have been forced to cancel this concert. Too many of the performers were having difficulties with travel arrangements because of the current hot weather. We very much hope that this special programme will be rescheduled to a later date. Those that bought a ticket will be refunded within the next 24 hours.

Nicholas Bucknall (clarinet)

Bethany Crouch (clarinet)

Phillip Edwards (clarinet)

Katy Hacker Hughes (soprano)

Ian Mitchell (clarinet)

Lesley Schatzberger (clarinet)

Gavin Roberts (piano)

Alan Hacker (1938-2012) OBE was appointed a professor at the neighbouring Royal Academy of Music at the age of 22. He gained an international reputation as a champion of new music and as a pioneer of old music on original instruments. In the 1960s, he was the founder, with Harrison Birtwistle, of the Pierrot Players, and in the 1970s, of Matrix, The Fires of London and The Music Party, the first group to use old instruments. He revived the forgotten basset clarinet in the mid-1960s to restore the Mozart Concerto and Quintet to near their original form.

Alan is also the late father of St Marylebone’s Priest Pastor The Revd Katy Hacker-Hughes, who will be singing in today’s performance. All other performers all have personal connections with the late great musician, and have collectively devised the programme to tell something of the story of this great musician, including music by Harrison Birtwistle, Gerald Finzi, Mozart, Weber, and even a Klezmer arrangement!