Tributes are paid to composer and organist who taught music at Portora Royal and Loreto Convent

He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, winning prizes for harmony and aural training. He gained his FRCO (Fellow of the Royal College of Organists) in 1960 and completed his studies at Keble College Oxford and the University of London’s Institute of Education.

In 1966 he was appointed Director of Music at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, before leaving two years later to study for his MA at Queen’s University Belfast. In 1969 Brian was appointed music teacher at Loreto Convent in Coleraine, remaining there until 1974. He continued to teach piano, organ and harmony on a freelance basis. He also served as the piano accompanist at the Coleraine and Portstewart Music Festivals (1976-82).

Two of Brian’s piano works from the 1960s were broadcast by the BBC. His First Symphony, The Long Hot Summer, was premièred by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Professor Raymond Warren in the Harty Room at Queen’s University in 1971. Three other symphonies remain unfinished.

Brian gave the inaugural Ballywillan Summer Recital in 1975 and subsequently played many of Bach’s major organ works there. Adrian Anderson, organist of Ballywillan Presbyterian Church, recalls Brian’s happiest years having been in Portstewart.

“Brian was a familiar sight on his bicycle in the triangle area with his large frame, woolly hat and feet in the ‘ten to two’ position propelling himself along with his heels on the pedals. Motorists in general were sympathetic, giving him a wide berth. Delightfully eccentric, he would park his bicycle against a shop window and bark instructions – ‘Stay there, Don’t move!’ People like Brian are hard to find. He is greatly missed.”