Alan TAYLOR (retired in 1996)

Alan Taylor retires at the end of the Summer Term after 35 years of distinguished service at Haberdashers'. He came to the School, then at Hampstead, appointed by Dr. Tom Taylor, whose widow Margaret remembers the early days of music at Haberdashers'.

"When we came to the school at Westbere Road in 1946 there was virtually no music; apparently the Latin master taught singing twice a week and there was an annual tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan. Eventually a music department developed under Dr. Eric McLellan with visiting teachers from the Royal Academy of Music. With the sudden illness of Dr. McLellan in 1962 Alan became a youthful Head of the Music Department.

The School's move to Elstree gave a tremendous push forwards, as the fine assembly hall with specialist lighting and acoustics could house a large choir and orchestra and the governors, parents and friends really appreciated the wider repertoire for music and drama. Alan and his staff could try out more challenging scores. The last Spring Concert was a wonderful tribute to so many orchestras, such a wide combination of instruments and voices, such enthusiasm and the enjoyment was obvious to the audience under the baton of Alan."

Alan was appointed an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in 1964 and Ronald Smith, formerly Chief Executive of the Board, has this to say of Alan's work:

"I can vouch that Alan's examining has always been as we would have wished it, competent, fair and efficient, and his file is typical of such a person-it is one of the thinnest in the filing cupboard. For some one who has been an examiner for 32 years this is an achievement in itself! He was my first choice for someone from the Independent School's, sector on the Board's Consultative Committee when it was formed in 1983."

A significant event in Alan Taylor's final year was a concert at Haberdashers Hall before an invited audience. Alan introduced the evening as well as directing the Senior Brass and Aske's Singers in an event which embraced a wide variety of musical styles. Appropriately, the final item was Wesley Woodage's arrangement of "Sunset" played by the Senior Brass. (Wesley was a well-loved and respected teacher of the trumpet who died in 1979). The Master of the Company, Mr Peter Bedford, in his appreciation of the concert which he called a "Taylor Vintage", made a presentation to Alan to commemorate the awesome and inspiring contribution Alan had made to the musical life of the School.

Paul Harris ('73), Head of Wing and Brass at Stowe School, clearly remembers the excitement and anticipation he felt sitting in the empty concert hall before the musicians' audience arrived. Having attended a good number of Alan's concerts since leaving, Paul says he "can still experience the buzz of exhilaration that Alan has the singular ability to create". Jon Bryant ('84) in responding to the invitation to sing at the final Spring Concert, writes: "You were always wonderfully supportive to me and my friends-not just in music. I hope I managed to repay some of your kindness and confidence you gave me by singing at your final concert".

Russell Jacobs ('78), has one son in the Prep. School already and another about to start in September. He is "confident that they will start as I did; namely with a great tradition behind them". He goes on to say "yours will be a difficult act to follow; no - an impossible one, judging by the look on those teachers', parents' and boys', faces tonight at the Spring Concert. But that does not matter, since the keystone, not the foundation stone, has been laid and in place for the past 35 years".

In November 1982 Alan's outstanding contribution to music and education was recognised in the bestowal of an M.B.E.

Finally, using Margaret Taylor's words: "May Alan's influence long continue. Thank you Alan for giving so much pleasure, such tingling-down the spine moments of sheer joy and uplift...