Richard Shephard
Composer
THE COMPOSER Dr Richard Shephard, who has died at 71, was headmaster of York Minster School from 1985 to 2004, and chamberlain at the Minster itself.
Having helped to establish the choir schools scholarship scheme in the 1990s and as chairman and then treasurer of the National Choir Schools’ Association, he was credited as a driving force behind outreach and partnership working that benefited thousands of children and young people across the North and beyond.
He was one of the first to introduce an outstanding girls’ choir at the Minster School, and in 2000 took on the role of director of music for the York Mystery Plays, which were seen by an estimated 30,000 people. The scores he composed for the 2000 and 2016 productions can still be heard during services at the Minster. Outside the church, he composed for opera, oratorio, theatre and orchestra, amongst other secular genres.
He was influential in helping to secure £10m for the restoration of the Minster’s Great East Window, and in the wider community took on the role of chairman of the Ryedale Festival and sat on the board of the Leeds International Piano Competition.
Born in Gloucester in March 1949, the son of Bernard and Hilda Shephard, he was one of twins. By age eight he was showing an interest in singing, and began his musical career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral. He studied music at Cambridge and was director of music and deputy head of Salisbury Cathedral School before moving to York. In an interview with The Yorkshire Post in 2012, shortly after he was awarded the MBE for services to music and education, he said he considered himself ”very lucky to be able to work in such an extraordinary building”.
Dr Shephard was awarded the Lambeth doctorate of music in 2001 and was an honorary freeman of the City of York and a deputy lieutenant for North Yorkshire.