Alan Harler, Music Director

In 1988, Alan Harler was named music director of Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, only the twelfth person to hold that position since the chorus's founding in 1874.  Maestro Harler also serves as Laura H. Carnell Professor and Chairman of Choral Music at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music.  He is an active conductor outside of Philadelphia, having performed regularly at the Festival Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Aspen Choral Institute, and has given master classes and conducted performances in Taiwan and China under the sponsorship of the Taiwan Philharmonic Association.
           
Alan Harler is a strong advocate for new American music.  He was founder and director of the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble of Indiana.  During his tenure with Mendelssohn Club, he has commissioned 36 new compositions, including such major works as Robert Moran's Requiem: Chant du Cygne (1990), Charles Fussell's Specimen Days (1992), Robert Stern's Returning the Song (1994), Cynthia Folio's Touch the Angel's Hand (1994), Jan Krzywicki's Lute Music (1995), James Primosch's Fire Memory/ River Memory (1998), Charles Fussell’s High Bridge (2003), and Andrea Clearfield’s The Golem Psalms (2006).  He conducted Mendelssohn Club in a critically acclaimed recording of the Moran Requiem for Argo/London Records in 1994.  With the Temple University Concert Choir, he has presented many Philadelphia premieres, including Moran's Hagoromo, Alfred Schnittke's Requiem, and Arvo Pärt's Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Joannem.  Maestro Harler has prepared choruses for many of the country's leading conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Klaus Tennstedt, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.
           
Harler has led many master classes in conducting, and currently serves as one of five Conducting Mentors with the Conductors Guild, making himself available for consultation with young conductors internationally.