Alan Herbert, who joined Haydock MVC as conductor in July 2005, could justly be described as a musical maestro in the world of singing and choral work from taking solo roles to conducting mixed, male and massed choirs. However, he is very much a local man having been born and raised in Leigh, just down the East Lancashire Road.
Alan became interested in music as a boy, singing in his family church. As a teenager, he was encouraged to take leading roles in the church's Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He went on to develop his solo work under such conductors as Herbert Winterbottom of Salford University and the legendary Arthur Bellis. His work with Mixed Voice and Male choirs goes back many years and his conducting duties have taken him all over the North West from the Manchester's MEN Arena, Free Trade Hall and Bridgewater Hall to Blackpool's Tower Ballroom and Opera House, as well as the Llangollen International Eisteddfod Arena.
Taking a more detailed look at Alan's musical career, he became Choir master and organist at Wigan Road Methodist Church Leigh, before moving to live in Worsley where he took up similar duties at Salford Methodist Community Church forming a new church Choir with excellent results. This led to his appointment as Musical Director to the Gerrard Male Voice Choir, in nearby Swinton for 7 years before moving on to the Bolton MVC for the next 3 years. On the death of Arthur Bellis, Alan took up the baton at the well known, CWS Male Voice Choir. In 1995 he was asked to take over the Macclesfield M.V.C. who were at the time in decline with only 20 members. Over the following 2 years built this choir up to 45 members enjoying considerable success on the concert platform.
Alan has also worked extensively with mixed voice choirs, having been M.D. to the Dovedale Singers, Stretford and Gatley Choral Societies conducting all the Major Works and Masses. The highlight of this particular period in his career saw him leading a Silver Jubilee performance of the Verdi Requiem with 250 choristers, soloists from Covent Garden and the Stockport Symphony Orchestra. In 1990 Alan was appointed M.D. to the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust. He has conducted concerts with massed Male voice choirs made up of more than 500 men at venues such as the Free Trade Hall and latterly the Bridgewater Hall working extensively with Organist Nigel Ogden who is a great friend. He has conducted at Blackpool's, Tower Ballroom and the Opera House working with Phil Kelsall the current organist. For 5 years, Alan also conducted the Llangollen Festival Male Voice Chorus with 600 men from English and Welsh choirs. In 2000, Alan was appointed to organise and conduct the largest male voice choir ever assembled indoors to celebrate the Millennium, with 2000 men, the Manchester Camerata Orchestra, Nigel Ogden at the Allen Computer Organ and soprano Marie McClaughlin from the Royal Opera House. The following year, he led the Millenium choir on a very successful tour of Canada which ended with the "9/11" tragedy the Choir was caught up in the chaos at Toronto airport. To help calm things down, the choir staged an impromptu concert for fellow travellers.
Whilst Alan's knowledge of traditional Male Voice Music is vast, he enjoys choral arrangements of modern songs, such as the Bohemian Rhapsody which was arranged specially for the Millenium Concert. He lists amongst his favourite pieces, "Morte Christe", "Gwahoddiad" (in Welsh of course), "Coney Island Baby" (barber shop), "Climbing Up the Mountain", "American Trilogy", "Sound An Alarm", "Martyrs of the Arena", "Voice of the Child".
As a conductor, Alan is a hard taskmaster intent on driving HMVC to attain even higher standards of performance. It is clear that he is both passionate and enthusiastic about music and wants us and our concert audiences to share in his love of music.