Critiques of Alan's performances have included these quotes:
"A Great Musician" CGM
"A Commanding soloist" CGM
"Unblemished technical precision" CGM
"Nimble, assured, carefully pitched and cleanly phrased, Banks' playing was a model of it's kind" The West Australian
"A Guitarist of truly outstanding ability... Breathtaking...without a doubt a distinguished new talent" CGM
"His to-die-for technique allied with a ferocious musical imagination seems to know no bounds" The West Australian
A former post-grad student at London’s Royal College of Music Alan is widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of Australia’s top guitarists with several composers including Frank Lyons and Richard Charlton, writing new works for Alan to perform.
Alan has performed around the world giving recitals in countries including France, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Portugal.
He has made many radio and TV appearances both in Australia and overseas including live broadcasts and recordings with ABC FM and recordings for BBC Radio 3, the UK’s premiere classical music station.
Currently based in Perth, Alan has been an invited guest at numerous festivals including the Musicora Festival (Paris) City of Derry International Guitar Festival (Northern Ireland), the Sonorities Contemporary Music Festival (Northern Ireland), Darwin International Guitar Festival (Australia), The Totally Huge New Music Festival and Fairbridge Festval.
In an orchestral setting Alan has performed as a soloist with the Western Australian, Croyden, Darwin, Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and Ulster Symphony orchestras amongst others.
An enthusiastic pedagogue Alan has acted as artist in residence at universities and festivals in Australia and overseas, presenting workshops, lectures and master-classes.
Recently Alan has given a number of performances in the Eastern States and was a soloist in the Totally Huge New Music Festival where he gave an Australian premiere of Michel Van der Aa's work for guitar and prepared tape "Auburn".
In 2005 Alan released his debut CD "Mnemonics".
His latest CD "Last Drinks in Derry" was released in April this year to coincide with the 2008 Fairbridge Festival where Alan was a featured artist.
Alan plays guitars by Simon Rovis-Hermann and Richard Howell.
Contact Alan by emailing alanbanks@hotmail.com
hello dear alan..how are you ? did you recive my mail, some weeks ago ? hihi, shall i tell you something ? i'm totally impressed by your playing ! greetings from a cold and windy holland
oh alan, how beautiful can guitar be, especially when played with such to-die-for technique and such sensibillity as you have.. i'm all delighted. so pleased to welcome you, new friend. respect and greetings from holland
Hey Alan - Just to let you know, the Wikipedia site is now the third return when you do a Google search for your name. Ha. That was quick! Hope all is well in Oz.
Hey Alan! We're keeping well. Nice to hear from you. Sophie will be 6 months on Wednesday, can you believe it? Yeah, it's fun having a bub around the place. Love your photo, R and R
hello, It's such a long time since I last stopped at your page... The way you play the guitar makes my ears smile ! Have a beautiful Week end, Nathalie
