During the seventies Alan enjoyed considerable success as composer for documentary film and dance, including commissions from Australian Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Moving Society, Ballet Rambert (UK), Nederlands Dans Theatre and Den Norske Opera. Into all of these compositions he incorporated elements of North Indian classical music.
Alan continues to study, to perform, to teach, to compose and to paint !
Alan has been studying and performing Indian classical music for over forty years. After some years as performer on Classical Guitar, he travelled to India to study Sitar and Sarod and the rudiments of vocal technique and percussion from Ustad Allauddin Khan, father and teacher of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and teacher of Pandit Ravi Shankar.
In Allauddin Khan’s final years Alan moved to Bengal and studied daily with Pandit Radhika Mohan Maitra, the eminent sarod player of the Shajahanpur Rampur Gharana. Since Maitra’s death he has had musical guidance from many eminent Indian musicians, including Kashinath Mukerjee, Bimal Mukerjee, Prabud Chaterjee, VG Jog and most recently Pandit Arvind Parikh from whom he has learnt much on the Etwar Gharana of Ustads Imdad Khan, Enayat Khan and Vilayat Khan. All of these influences have given Alan a rich foundation on which to build his own evolving style.
Pandit Radhika Mohan Maitra (above)
Prabud Chaterjee (below)
Kashinath Mukerjee
Alan’s focus in the eighties was active dissemination of Indian classical music via an extensive program of teaching and performance. He lectured in Ethno-Musicology and Twentieth Century Composition at the University of New England, NSW and was visiting lecturer at universities in all states of Australia. He wrote and presented an ABC Radio National series on Indian Classical Music and undertook perfomance tours and teaching assignments with various Indian accompanists throughout the country.
Aneesh Pradhan (above)
Gladwyn Charles (right)
Anthony Das (below)
After Alan moved to Adelaide he established The Music Room as an Australian centre for teaching Indian Classical Music and vehicle for promotion of Indian and non-western musical performance. He has subsequently performed in India at Ahmedabad and Mumbai (sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), presented his own insights on teaching in the West at the International Ethno-musicological conference ‘Indian Music & The West’ (conference paper for download) in Mumbai. Over the years Alan has experimented with musicians from various genres, including jazz guitar, bass, oboe, cor anglais, saxophone, French harpsichord, Japanese koto and shakuhachi and Middle eastern oud and kanun.
Rosalind Halton
Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury
Maihar 1968
Alan Posselt - Sitarist
