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Richard Yarr is one of Northern Ireland’s best-known Arts professionals: an award-winning Music and Arts producer with the BBC; a recognised innovator in the sector; and the recipient of a National Honour – an MBE for Services to Music. He is also a Deputy Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast.

Richard has substantial experience of leading local government committees and charities. He is Chairperson of the Charles Wood Festival of Music & Summer School; Artistic Director of the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition, which he founded in 2011; a Music Advisor for CCEA (The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment, NI) and Director of Music in Belfast’s oldest place of worship. In May 2024 Richard was appointed to the board of the Arts Council of Ireland/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon following a Public Appointments process. In his 5-year term he will lead the development of a new 10-year Arts strategy for the Republic of Ireland.

Richard is Music Fellow at Lichfield Cathedral School in Staffordshire and Patron of both the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year Competition and the Lagan Festival of Speech, Drama, Music & Art. He co-ordinated the BBC’s national coverage of Derry~Londonderry UK City of Culture in 2013 and, as a strong advocate of Arts partnerships, created BBC Northern Ireland’s School Choir of the Year Competition in 2015 – a partnership between the BBC, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the National Youth Choir of Northern Ireland. Richard is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Freeman of the City of London.

Jonathan was the winner of the 1997 Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year competition.

Belfast-born Jonathan Byers began playing the cello aged seven, and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with David Strange and Jennifer Ward Clarke. As a founder member of the Badke Quartet, he was winner of the 1st prize and audience prize in the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2007. The Quartet performed at festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Aldeburgh and Verbier Festivals and in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and frequently broadcasted on BBC Radio 3.

Jonathan enjoys a busy freelance career performing as guest principal with many orchestras and period instrument groups, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Classical Opera Company, La Serenissima, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Early Opera Company. He also plays with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and is currently Co-Principal cellist with the English Concert and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. In 2011, Jonathan was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, an honorary award for former students of the Academy who have made a notable contribution to the music profession. Jonathan performs on a c.1750 cello by John Johnson and a fine Italian cello from c.1730s made possible by the Stradivari Trust.