Stephen Farr is highly regarded among his generation of organists, performing a vast repertoire with considerable focus on contemporary works. He has performed at many of the major English cathedrals, in concertos with leading orchestras, and is the music director at St. Paul's Knightsbridge.
Farr also performs on the harpsichord as a continuo player in chamber music settings.
Farr was born in London in 1967. He began his organ studies with Robert Munns and
David Sanger before earning a scholarship to study with
Piet Kee in the Netherlands and
Hans Fagius in Denmark.
Farr became an organ scholar at Clare College in Cambridge, earning degrees in music and musicology. In 1988, he was named the Royal College of Organists Performer of the Year and followed that up with several international competition prizes.
Farr held sub-organist posts at Christ Church Oxford and Winchester Cathedral before being appointed the organist at Guildford Cathedral in 1999; he held this position until 2007. He went on to serve at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge and Worcester College in Oxford. In 2014,
Farr earned his PhD at the University of Surrey on
Judith Bingham's organ and harpsichord compositions.
Farr has worked primarily as a freelance musician since obtaining his doctorate, with a diverse repertoire spanning from the Renaissance to the 21st century. He has dedicated much of his programming to new music, premiering works by
Poul Ruders,
Thomas Hyde, and
Francis Pott, among others.
Farr commissioned
David Briggs to write an organ symphony based on
Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, debuting the work in 2004. In 2011,
Farr premiered The Everlasting Crown, written for him by
Bingham, in his solo BBC Proms debut. He has performed across Great Britain and beyond at illustrious venues such as Winchester Abbey and Cathedral and Notre Dame in Paris. As a concerto soloist,
Farr has performed with many leading orchestras, including the
City of Birmingham Symphony, the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the
Berlin Philharmonic.
Farr has recorded for the Resonus, Hyperion, and Nimbus labels, among others, and his recordings are equally as varied as his performing career. In the late 1990s,
Farr accompanied the
Winchester Cathedral Choir in a cycle of Charles Villiers Stanford's Sacred Choral Music. He has issued several recordings of
Bach's organ music as well as recordings of organ works by
Kenneth Leighton (2016),
Judith Bingham (2017), and
James MacMillan (2020).
Farr is the music director at St. Paul's Knightsbridge and chief examiner for the Royal College of Organists.