Among organists of his generation, Stephen Farr commands notable esteem for an expansive repertoire that places particular weight on contemporary compositions. Appearances have taken him to numerous major English cathedrals and into concerto collaborations with prominent orchestras. He serves as chief examiner of the Royal College of Organists while holding the post of music director at All Saints, Margaret Street. Additional activity includes harpsichord continuo work in chamber-music contexts. In 2024 he supplied organ for the album William Byrd: The Great Service & English Anthems with the vocal ensemble Alamire.
Born in London in 1967, Farr began organ studies with Robert Munns and David Sanger, later securing a scholarship for lessons with Piet Kee in the Netherlands and Hans Fagius in Denmark. He subsequently became organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, where he completed degrees in music and musicology. The Royal College of Organists named him Performer of the Year in 1988; several international competition prizes followed. Sub-organist appointments at Christ Church Oxford and Winchester Cathedral preceded his 1999 installation as organist of Guildford Cathedral, a role he retained until 2007. Later positions included service at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford. During the late 1990s he accompanied the Winchester Cathedral Choir through a complete cycle of Charles Villiers Stanford’s Sacred Choral Music.
Programming has frequently centered on new music, encompassing premieres of works by Poul Ruders, Thomas Hyde, and Francis Pott. He commissioned David Briggs to compose an organ symphony on Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, which received its first performance in 2004. Between 2007 and 2020 Farr acted as music director at St. Paul’s Knightsbridge. His solo BBC Proms debut occurred in 2011 with the premiere of Judith Bingham’s The Everlasting Crown, written expressly for him. In 2014 he earned a PhD from the University of Surrey devoted to Bingham’s organ and harpsichord music. Since completing the doctorate he has worked principally as a freelance musician, maintaining a repertoire that stretches from the Renaissance through the twenty-first century.
Concerts have taken him throughout Great Britain and abroad to such venues as Winchester Abbey, Winchester Cathedral, and Notre Dame in Paris. As concerto soloist he has appeared with orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Berlin Philharmonic. Recordings issued on Resonus, Hyperion, Nimbus, and additional labels mirror the breadth of his performing activity. Releases encompass several volumes of Bach’s organ music together with discs devoted to the organ works of Kenneth Leighton (2016), Judith Bingham (2017), and James MacMillan (2020). He assumed the chief-examiner role at the Royal College of Organists in 2017 and became music director at All Saints, Margaret Street, in 2020. Further 2020s releases as organist include a survey of the organ works of Francis Grier; he rejoined Alamire and director David Skinner for the 2024 William Byrd recording.
