Hacker, Alan (1938- )

English clarinettist and conductor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and taught there from 1959. He was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra 1959-66, and a founder member of the Pierrot Players, later Fires of London, giving first performances of many works by Peter Maxwell Davies. He founded his own group, Matrix, in 1971 and has given first performances of works by Boulez, David Blake, Birtwistle, and Goehr. He has been involved in ‘authentic’ performances of classical music, often with early versions of the clarinet. From 1977 he conducted authentic versions of symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven, and the Haydn Masses; he led the first production of Mozart's complete Finta Giardiniera with the Swedish National Opera in 1987, Keiser's Claudius at the Vadstena Academy in 1989, and the premiere of Weir's The Vanishing Bridegroom in Glasgow in 1990. He conducted the Stuttgart Opera 1990-92, performing Don Giovanni and Monteverdi's Ulisse. He led Giulio Cesare at the 1992 Halle Festival.