Thrift was born in Quirindi, New South Wales, Australia. He entered AMC in 1946 and completed an A.Mus.A in 1947 and a Mus.Dip. at AMC in 1951. While attending AMC, he met and married Yvonne Zanotti, a singer and pianist, who had been born in Tasmania, an Australian island state off the southern coast of the mainland. He then continued his education, receiving a Trained Primary Teacher Certificate at Melbourne Teacher's College in 1952, and a Singing Teacher Primary Certificate from the Victorian Education Department in 1953.

In 1954, Thrift started his conducting career as an employee of the music branch in the Victoria Education Department. He distinguished himself during that first teaching experience when he prepared and led 1200 children in a performance for the Governor General when he visited Ballarat, Victoria, that year. He then served as Music Director of the Western Australian Seventh-day Adventist Conference in 1955 and 1956.

Thrift, who while still a student had assisted with piano lessons and sung in George Greer's choir at AMC, was invited to lead the music department at AMC, teach piano and music subjects, and direct the Symphonic Choir, beginning in 1957. He and his wife would teach at the college for the next four decades.

Within a year of his arrival at the school as Music Director and teacher, he conducted the AMC choir in the first telecast of a choral program in Sydney. It would be the first of several telecasts of his choral programs over the years by the Australian Broadcasting Company.

Thrift continued and built on the tradition of choral excellence and touring at AMC that had started with Greer in the previous decade. In his years at the college, he would take acclaimed tours with its choral groups throughout Australia and to New Zealand and the United States. Two tours were taken to the U.S., in 1983 and 1990; the latter included performances from coast to coast, in nine states, and an appearance at the General Conference Session in Indianapolis.

During his 41 years at the college, Thrift moved from performing only sacred choral music to including secular music. Beginning in the 1960s, he formed a smaller group from within the choir that performed madrigals and other secular works. This change was more fully implemented with the full group in the next decade, in part because of the experience he had when attending Andrews University in the U.S. from 1969 to 1971. In those two years, while completing both a B.Mus. and an M.Mus., Thrift immersed himself in the AU choral program, directing The Good News Singers, a male chorus, and serving as the accompanist for the University Singers, the select choir, in his final year.

Inspired by this experience, upon returning home he changed the name of the Avondale Symphonic Choir to the Avondale Singers, reduced its size to facilitate travel arrangements, and started programming both sacred and secular music. This renamed ensemble took its first tour to Tasmania, in September 1972.

Thrift and his choirs worked closely with David Clark, an organist who had started teaching at AC in 1969 when Thrift was in the U.S. After Thrift's return, Clark traveled with the choir, accompanying and playing as a soloist. They toured throughout Australia and internationally until Thrift retired for the first time in 1990. When Thrift returned to direct the choir in 1998, they again worked together before he fully retired, along with Clark, in 2004.

During their final year at AC, they toured to New Zealand with the Singers and a chamber orchestra conducted by Clark. Both men were honored for their service during a farewell concert presented by these groups during the 2004 graduation weekend.

In 1976, the Avondale College yearbook, Jacaranda, was dedicated to both Thrift and his wife, Yvonne. They were praised for their ministry through music, leadership, friendliness, and untiring devotion. He became Senior Lecturer at AC in 1977 and Senior Lecturer II in 1983.

While still teaching at AC, Thrift founded the Lake Macquair City Ladies Choir in 1981, a group he still conducts. At the time of his first retirement in 1990, he was invited to become Musical Director of the Sydney Male Choir, a noted ensemble with an extensive and varied repertoire that was founded in 1913. The SMC under his direction has performed before enthusiastic audiences in Australia and toured with acclaim to New Zealand in 1992 and England, Ireland, and Wales in 1998. In 2005, they took a highly praised tour to Tasmania, singing before sold-out crowds. Thrift continues to direct this 85-member group.

Following the death of his wife, Yvonne, in 1996, Alan assumed direction of the Avondale Memorial Church Choir, which she had started five years earlier. He also still leads that choir.

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