Organist Seth Bott, who is a native of Castle Dale, Utah, will be the featured performer at the next concert in the Organ Virtuoso Concert series, on Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m. MDT, in the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
How to watch in person or online
The hourlong concert is free and open to the public, and no tickets are required, according to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s announcement.
It will also be streamed at 7:30 p.m. on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel, broadcasts.churchofjesuschrist.org and the Gospel Stream app. After the performance ends, the video will be available on demand.
About Seth Bott
Bott is an active recitalist and performs many recitals around the United States every year, according to information from the Tabernacle Choir’s announcement. He served for many years as a visiting organist and participated in the daily recital series in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
He has filled many church music roles in many denominations, and is currently serving as director of music and organist at St. James Episcopal Church in Midvale, Utah. Bott also works in the school of music at the University of Utah as a collaborative pianist and has an organ studio of around 25 students.
Bott earned his Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in organ performance and pedagogy from Brigham Young University, where he studied with Don Cook and Douglas Bush. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance at the University of Kansas, where he studied under Higdon and Michael Bauer. He was appointed to a graduate teaching assistantship, where he taught private lessons and worked closely with the organ faculty.
In 2009, he took first place in region IX of the American Guild of Organists’s regional competitions for young organists, allowing him to perform at the guild’s national convention in Washington, D.C., in 2010.
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series started in 2022 and was created to showcase the Tabernacle organ and world-renowned organists and has been presented quarterly. This concert with Bott is the 10th in the series.
The series began with concerts by James Higdon, an organist from the University of Kansas; Gabriele Terrone, the Cathedral of the Madeline’s organist and assistant director of music; and Andrew Unsworth, who has been a Tabernacle organist since 2007.
In 2023, performers included Viktor Billa, Ukrainian organist and soloist who is an organist at Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida; James O’Donnell, professor in the practice of organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut, and has had tenures at the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, both in London, England; Daniel Kerr, the chair of the Music Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho; and Brian Mathias, who has been a Tabernacle organist since 2018.
The first concert of 2024 featured Temple Square organist Linda Margetts in February. Organist Diane Meredith Belcher, who has been performing for 50 years, was featured in May.
The concerts with Belcher, Margetts, Mathias, Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa, Unsworth and Terrone are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel. (See videos below.)
About the Tabernacle organ
The Tabernacle pipe organ has five manuals, or keyboards, and 206 ranks of organ pipes and is among the world’s largest instruments. Its golden pipes are made from wood staves fashioned from Utah timber and still add to the sound of the famous instrument today.
There are also free daily organ concerts at noon in the Tabernacle. Previously, the Tabernacle organists performed a weekly “Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square” series that was streamed online. The series ended in November 2023, and past performances are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel by searching #pipingup.
Playlists of organ music, including “Organ Solos” and “Tabernacle Choir Organ Performances” are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel.
Past concerts in the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
The concerts with Belcher, Margetts, Mathias, Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa, Unsworth and Terrone are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel.
Diane Meredith Belcher
Linda Margetts
Brian Mathias
Daniel Kerr
James O’Donnell
Viktor Billa
Andrew Unsworth
Gabriele Terrone
Correction: An earlier headline on this story described Seth Bott as a Tabernacle organist. He has been a guest organist.
