ALAN TAYLOR
Organist & choir-director at Broadway United Reformed Church for over 50 years,
Alan has served for over 20 years on the Council of Birmingham Organists' Association,
and in 2017 became General Secretary of the Incorporated Association of Organists.
Alan retired from his "day job" as Assistant Headteacher at King Edward VI Five Ways School Birmingham in 2009 (where he was responsible in 1998 for a project to rebuild and enlarge the school organ). He maintains a busy schedule as conductor, soloist and accompanist - and not only at Broadway. In addition to playing for weddings & funerals and appearing in concerts at other churches in the Midlands, he has performed at Lichfield Cathedral, Walsall Town Hall and Birmingham's Symphony Hall.
He served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2009. In 2013, he was appointed a director & trustee of the IAO and from 2017 is serving as its General Secretary.
Alan has been playing the organ for church services since the age of 12. He was appointed Assistant Organist of Walsall (Wednesbury Road) Congregational Church in 1966, when the church housed a 30-stop three-manual organ by the famous Leeds firm of J J Binns.
In 1969, while still at school, Alan gained an Associate diploma from the London College of Music. In that same year, he was appointed Organist & Choirmaster at Broadway. Apart from a four-year period while studying in Durham & Oxford and thus only available during vacations, Alan has been playing weekly at Broadway since then. His total number of services played at the church is now well over 4500.
For 25 years until 2015, Alan organised a series of fund-raising autumn concerts at Broadway URC with guest organists including Daniel Bishop, Paul Carr, Andrew Fletcher and Dr Roy Massey MBE. He has conducted major choral works including Fauré's Requiem, Haydn's The Creation and Nelson Mass, Handel's Messiah and Anthem for the Foundling Hospital, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Stainer's The Crucifixion and Vivaldi's Gloria.
He now promotes, with sponsorship from the Professor Alan Dronsfield Trust, a summer series of Saturday morning "Coffee & Cake" organ concerts at Broadway URC, which mostly showcase young organists of a professional standard.