Richard Elliott, the principal organist for The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, will be the featured performer in the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso concert on Friday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
The 90-minute concert is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. It’s recommended for those 8 and older. While past Organ Virtuoso Performance Series concerts have been streamed online, this one will be available only in person.
“With the evening concerts that are a little bit more formal and a little bit longer than what we do for the daily noon recitals, that gives us opportunities to bring out more substantial music,” Elliott said. “Also, it’s enabled us to bring in world-class organists.”
The evening concerts are more formal and longer than the 30-minute daily organ recitals, Elliott said. Performers have included James O’Donnell, who has had tenures at the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, both in London, England; and Diane Meredith Belcher, who has been performing for 50 years. They’ve also had several local organists perform along with the Tabernacle organists. Each year, a national performer or a local organist is invited to perform and one of the Tabernacle Choir staff organists.
There is also a free, 30-minute daily organ recital in the Tabernacle — at noon Monday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sundays. They are occasionally moved to the Conference Center. See TheTabernacleChoir.org/daily-organ-recitals for information and the weekly schedule.
While the Organ Virtuoso Performance Series began in 2022, the daily organ recitals date back to about 1911, Elliott said.
“Before that, they were offered a few times during the week, mainly for tourists who were passing through town on the trains and had a stopover and wanted to hear the famous organ and the acoustics of the Tabernacle,” Elliott said, who joined the organ staff in 1991.
Missionaries giving tours will demonstrate the acoustics by standing at a podium on the stage of the domed Tabernacle and rip a piece of newsprint or drop small nails — and visitors in the back can hear it clearly without any additional amplification.
The Tabernacle organ currently has 11,623 pipes — and 10 of the largest pipes in the facade on the west end make sound. There are about 11,000 pipes behind the facade and about 600 on the east end.
“We love sharing the magic of this organ and this room, and especially just love sharing the pioneer spirit that permeates this building and permeates the organ,” he said.
The pioneer song “Come, Come, Ye Saints” is frequently played during the recitals, Elliott said. He likes to use a set of pipes from 1867 that are on the east end of the Tabernacle.
Prior to becoming a Tabernacle organist, Elliott taught at Brigham Young University. Elliott, who grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, studied at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and master’s and doctorate degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Earlier this year, he received the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities, presented each year by the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. In 2022, Elliott was awarded the Governor’s Mansion Arts Award by Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox and first lady Abby Cox. The annual award recognizes Utah artists who have a positive impact on the arts and their communities.
Previous Organ Virtuoso Performance Series concerts
The series began in 2022 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 were Viktor Billa, Ukrainian organist and soloist who is an organist at Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida; O’Donnell, professor of the practice of organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut, who has had tenures at the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral; 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 Belcher, who has been performing for 50 years, was featured in May. Seth Bott, who is a native of Castle Dale, Utah, and director of music and organist at St. James Episcopal Church in Midvale, Utah, performed in September. Victoria Shorokhova, who is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance at University of Houston in Texas and is the organ scholar at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, performed in November.
Earlier this year, James Welch, who has taught at University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Santa Clara University and performed in concerts and recitals around the world, was the featured performer in February. Lynn Trapp, director of liturgy and music at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Maryland, performed in September.
The concerts with Welch and Mathias are available on the choir’s YouTube channel.
Playlists of organ music, including “Organ Solos” and “Tabernacle Choir Organ Performances” are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel.
