RICHARD THOMAS YARNDLEY
Mr. Yarndley was born December 5, 1840, in Manchester, England. His parents were both musicians of a high order. His father was an organist of the first rank and a viola player of exceptional ability. He was first viola in the celebrated band of Sir Charles Halle and was complimented at one time by Mendelssohn, the great composer. The Earl of Ellsmere was his patron, who bought his pipe organ when he left for America. Mr. Yarndley's mother was a concert singer, possessing a pure soprano voice of rare sweetness and power. She sang repeatedly under Mendelssohn's directing with such artists as Madame Anna and Sir Henry Bishop, Sir George Smart, Simms Reeves, Parepa Rosa, Jenny Lind and other great singers of her day, going to Dublin at one time with the "Swedish Nightingale" as assistant at her concert.
The little Richard from the tender age of five years accompanied his mother regularly at these concerts as her small chevalier. He was thus from infancy reared in an atmosphere of the best music. His training was principally under his father, although he received instruction from the best teachers of the city. At the age of seventeen years he was sent to this country to hold an organ position at Detroit, Mich., for his father who was to come with the family the following year. He was playing at that time in the largest church in Manchester. He created quite a sensation the first Sunday, dressed as all English boys were, in a roundabout jacket, broad turned-down collar, and Scotch cap with long ribbons behind. During his ten years' residence in the "City of the Streets" he acquired a reputation as piano teacher, organist and conductor of the Handel and Haydn society. In 1870 he removed to San Francisco and was at once invited to take charge of the Harmonic society of Oakland and the organ of the Congregational church of that city, which position he filled until his departure for Portland, Ore., some three years later. Afterwards, returning to California, he held positions in Grace Church and St. Luke's Church, San Francisco, and in the Presbyterian church of Oakland. He was an all-round musician of no mean order and might have accomplished much, had he not been handicapped by ill health. Probably his most marked success was in Albany, N.Y., where he was intimately associated with Miss Emma La Jeunesse, afterwards Albani, who was his lifelong friend. He was given many brilliant testimonials from the musical association and citizens of Albany. Music was with him a holy passion as well as vocation. He was a man of high moral principals, singularly guileless and of a deep religious fervor. He died at Livermore, Cal., September 7, 1895, aged fifty-four years, and was laid to rest in the Masonic cemetery there.