Richard Yarr

Home / News & Blogs / Richard Yarr

Richard Yarr is Senior Producer, Classical Music with BBC Northern Ireland. He read music at Queen’s University and graduated with First Class Honours, and the May Turtle Scholarship for academic excellence, 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.

Since 2000 Richard has been producing for BBC Radio Ulster and Radio 3. He is currently responsible for Ulster Orchestra content on BBC platforms, chamber music recorded across Ireland and local broadcasts of Choral Evensong. He also oversees BBC Radio Ulster’s weekly classical music show,Classical Connections with John Toal, and created BBC Radio Ulster’s highly successful School Choir of the Year Competition in 2015.

In other roles with the Corporation Richard co-ordinated the BBC-wide coverage of Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013, across TV, Radio and Online. He has also worked as part of the BBC Singers Management Team in London.

Richard is sought after as an adjudicator and locally he has worked with competitions including Bangor International Choral Festival, Carrickfergus, Portstewart and Larne Music Festivals.

Richard is Chair of the Charles Wood Festival and Summer School in Armagh and founded the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition in 2011. He has also been Director of Music at Christ Church Lisburn since 1992.