Alan Tavener

Alan joined St Bride’s in 2019 from Jordanhill Parish Church, where he was Director of Music since moving to Scotland in 1980.  He is a music graduate of the University of Oxford (where he was Heberden Organ Scholar at Brasenose College and when he gained diplomas in organ performance and teaching) and an educational research graduate of the University Strathclyde (where he focussed on the social, educational and health benefits of singing) where, for many years he was also Director of Music with responsibility for teaching, the promotion of a professional concerts series, and the direction of a wide range of student choirs, orchestras and ensembles, including Strathclyde University Chamber Choir which he continues to direct, and which has toured many times in Europe and further afield, has undertaken recorded and live radio broadcasts, and has released a CD of Romantic Scottish part-songs.

Having co-founded Cappella Nova with Rebecca Tavener, Alan has conducted the group on 15 CDs, all world premiere recordings, and directed the premieres of more than 60 commissioned pieces including major works by Sir John Tavener, Sir James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Gabriel Jackson.  In recognition of his ground-breaking work on Scottish early choral music, he was invited to direct a master-class for postgraduate choral conductors at the Moscow Conservatoire, and has mentored Apprentice Conductors for the Association of British Choral Directors.  He has also led sessions at the Association’s annual Convention, and has presented a paper on the holistic benefits of group-singing activities at the annual Making Music Conference.

As well as directing Cappella Nova on stage and leading singing workshops for established choirs and other organisations, Alan is also Director of Cappella Nova Outreach which offers a wide range of accessible group-singing opportunities for anyone from beginner upwards through collaborating with Strathclyde University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning (for whom he led a participative session at its 25th anniversary event ‘Celebrating Silver’) and, for ten years, leading the Scottish Plainsong Choir, a community project which explored liturgical music in historic venues and regularly appeared as a ‘backing group’ with Canty and Cappella Nova.  Our most recent initiative is Cappella Nova Outreach at St Bride’s.

In 2015, Alan was awarded the honorary Associateship of the Royal School of Church Music for his “considerable contribution to church music in Scotland, particularly in his ecumenical approach and, in the 2020 New Year Honours List, the BEM for “services to choral music in Scotland”.