Alan Harverson

Who was Alan Harverson?

Alan Harverson was an English organist, pianist and teacher, born and raised in southern Ireland.

He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in 1939, taking six prizes for piano and organ playing and the coveted Certificate of Merit, eventually being elected to a professorship in 1973, having taught there since 1942. He was organist at number of London churches in succession, including St Mary's Bryanston Square and the London Oratory. He was appointed to the influential churches of St Gabriels, Cricklewood and the Servite Priory, Fulham, where he presided over a new instrument by Grant, Degens & Bradbeer. It is typical of him that, having been appointed, he refused to take up the position in Fulham until the new organ had been completed. Latterly, he was one of the organists at Holy Trinity Sloane Street, where his colourfully expansive playing could be heard in central London each week in the years after 1987.

He found a permanent niche as organist to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and consequently played the organ for twenty-nine Last Nights of the Proms. Alan Harverson worked with many of the leading orchestras and conductors of his time and was a valued chamber musician.