September 30, 1938 - April 16, 2012

The English clarinettist and conductor, Alan Hacker, was the son of Kenneth and Sybil Hacker. After attending Dulwich College (from 1950 to 1955), he went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Dove Prize and the Boise Travelling Scholarship which he used to study in Paris, Bayreuth and Vienna.

 

In 1958 Alan Hacker joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He became a professor of the Royal Academy of Music in 1960 and went on to found the Pierrot Players in 1965 along with Stephen Pruslin and Harrison Birtwistle which in 1972 became the Fires of London. In 1971 he founded his own group, Matrix. He was also appointed chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Music section and of the British section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. He was one of those credited with reviving the basset clarinet and in 1967 he restored the original text of Mozart's Concerto and Quintet. He played them on an instrument modelled on that for whom Mozart originally wrote them, the Stadler's extended basset clarinet. Alan kacker is a most important name among UK Clarinettists. During a long career he has played all over the world. He championed not only works of Mozart, but new music. Continue reading...