Sunday worship is traditional in its style/approach and is supported by our church choir. The choir has an established reputation and the musical life of the church has been enhanced by the annual Summer Recital Series with NI Opera - an initiative that was begun by Billy and Beth McKay BEM. We have also been pleased to appoint our first Musician in Residence, the acclaimed harpist Tanya Houghton and eight Music Scholars under the direction of our Organist and Director of Music, Richard Yarr FRSA. These exciting developments have been made possible thanks to a bequest from a bequest from Rev Tom Banham.
Richard Yarr - Director of Music
Richard Yarr is Senior Producer, Arts & Music, with BBC Northern Ireland, where he oversees local classical music output for BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio 3. This includes a range of creative partnerships with organisations including the Ulster Orchestra, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Opera. He created BBC Northern Ireland’s School Choir of the Year competition in 2014 and co-ordinated the BBC’s coverage of Derry~Londonderry UK City of Culture in 2013. During his varied BBC career he has also worked as part of the BBC Singers Management Team in London and with the BBC Proms.
Richard read music at Queen’s University and graduated with First Class Honours in 1992. He then gained a choral scholarship to King’s College London, where he completed a Master of Music Degree, before returning to Queen’s to undertake Doctoral studies.
Richard is the Chair of the Charles Wood Festival and Summer School in Armagh; Founder and Artistic Director of the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition for young organists aged 21 and under; and has been Director of Music at First Church since August 2018. Before that he was Director of Music at Christ Church, Lisburn, for 26 years. He is also Patron of the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year Competition.
Richard is in demand as an adjudicator and has worked at competitions from Caithness to Navan. He also presents BBC Radio Ulster’s popular Sunday evening requests programme, Sounds Sacred.
Richard received the Freedom of the City of London last year and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Tanya Houghton - Musician in Residence
Originally from Birmingham, Tanya studied in Cambridge, London and Paris before embarking on a freelance career, based in the UK and Ireland. Her harp work spans symphony orchestras to chamber groups, solo recitals and accompanying soloists and choirs. She regularly appears with the Ulster Orchestra and has also recently appeared with the CBSO, both RTE orchestras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Featured on many recordings and broadcasts, Tanya recently played live on BBC Radio 3, performing in Tollymore Forest, both as a soloist and in one of her folk song arrangements accompanying Sinead O'Kelly.
She has accompanied choirs for John Rutter, Bob Chilcott, David Hill and Graham Ross amongst others, and features on the chart-topping ‘A rose in the middle of winter’ in music by Bob Chilcott. She also accompanied the BBC Singers in a live broadcast of Britten's 'Ceremony of Carols,' and in their broadcast of 'Chichester Psalms' as part of the Total Immersion series.
Tanya played for Britten’s 100th birthday concert in Wigmore Hall, accompanying tenor Nicholas Mulroy, and in has accompanied Sir James Galway for Songs of Praise.
Tanya also sings and conducts, and is musical director of the Belfast-based vocal ensemble Melisma. In 2015 Tanya was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for her contribution to the profession.
The Banham Scholars
The scholars comprise 8 professional singers, with close links to Northern Ireland Opera. They were formed in November 2019 in memory of Rev. Tom Bahman and take part in a range of spceical services and events, alongside the church choir
