3:07 – Started with the Choir
6:55 – Converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
13:51 – Why Serve a mission as a late teen convert
15:33 – I heard the pipes!
17:49 – Why not the Trumpet?!
22:20 – “Go Tell it on the Mountain”
27:26 – Follow your passions NO MATTER WHAT
32:00 Organ Recitals
33:42 – Notable Performing Experiences
41:02 – “Hot Pipes”
43:03 – Where is the off switch?
50:18 – Genesis of the Christmas Organ Solo
53:24 – So your telling me 2020 has been different eh?
56:59 – Most Memorable Music Experience
59:13 – Three Questions
Transcript
Richie T. Steadman
Podcast Host: The Cultural Hall
Interview: Richard Elliott, Organist
Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Steadman: It’s time for another episode of The Cultural Hall and you know Richard Elliott is here and by here I mean technologically here. He is somewhere else, I’m keeping him safe he’s keeping me safe. But I wonder if it is a move on your behalf, Richard Elliott organist for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, that you have those gold records in the background. That is pretty intimidating to even start out with this whole thing.
Elliott: Yeah, no, this happens to be the conference room for the Tabernacle Choir which is about the quietest spot here right now with all the construction going on so it was not intentional but I’m glad you are a little bit intimidated.
Steadman: And you probably have counted them and certainly someone has counted them but it is countless almost the number of gold records that the choir and subsequently your work has been a part of.
Elliott: There are so many that we can’t keep track of them all and almost every time they release a recording it goes to the top of the charts and we are just glad to have a following and I’m just glad to be along for the ride.
Steadman: So we’ll get to know you a little bit but I am curious how that ride started. You have been with the choir almost 30 years so take us back to I’m assuming right around 30 years ago when they said hey, who don’t you come play this organ for us.
Elliott: Yeah, well at the time I was teaching organ at BYU. I went there in 1988 when I was wrapping up my doctorate from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. I had been there teaching there for two years at BYU working mainly with our group organ instruction program which was designed to crank out as many organists as we could, taking people who had piano skills and then giving them the tools become decent church organists and then also teach others how to do that. It was really a fulfilling job and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But after two years there I got a phone call from the Tabernacle Choir offices saying that Robert Cundick would be retiring in the next year or so and asking if I would be interested in being considered for the job and of course I was just thrilled and honored by that. It was a hard decision because I enjoyed teaching so much. So it took a little while just to decide that I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and then the auditions came a few months after that. And then I was interviewed by President Hinckley and he basically told me that I wouldn’t start working for over six months from the date of our interview. And so I had to keep it quiet from everybody except for my immediate family and then join the choir organization in May of 1991 and I’ve been here ever since.
Steadman: I have to wonder and maybe some of it is sacred and not to be shared, but I do have to wonder what does an interview for being the organist for the choir sound like?
Elliott: It was a great great experience talking to both President Hinckley and I was interviewed by the president of the choir organization, Wendell Smoot at the time. But President Hinckley, I always had just the greatest respect and reverence for him and just to be in his office with my wife and talking to him for at least a half an hour, I don’t remember exactly how long, is just wonderful. He’d known many of the previous organists. He had stories to tell, he was reassuring but at the same time it was sobering just to be in that spot, and to talk to him about the responsibilities and about the history of the choir and what it meant to the church as a whole.
Steadman: You know it is fascinating when you think that when you were young, were you a Ricky or were you Rick?
Elliott: Yeah, well you are Richie now but it was definitely Ricky when I was younger.
Steadman: When you look back at young Ricky Elliott did you ever think that this would be where your life would lead to?
Elliott: No, no way. I loved music as a kid but never really thought I’d make living at it and even after I decided to make music my career I really wanted to become a studio musician in New York or Los Angeles and just never dreamed that anything like this would be a possibility. I was not a member of the Church at the time so it really was way out of the picture. But then the same week that I actually graduated from college with my Bachelor’s Degree I was also baptized and that opened up some different windows and different perspectives. So I went on a Mission to Argentina a year later and when I came back I thought well, maybe I should see what I can do with this so I ended up going to graduate school and then things kind of fell into place.
Steadman: You’ve just summarized your entire life in about 45 seconds so I’m going to make you pick some of those pieces apart because I’m curious how it is that you found The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?
Elliott: I had some classmates there, I was a student in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music and several classmates who were members of the Church. One of them was a Stake Missionary in those days and he was a tuba player there, we’re still good friends and so he took on the job of teaching me which was good because I was a little intimated by the full-time Missionaries who were from Utah and Idaho and they were so different from my friends, my circle of friends and I wasn’t 100% comfortable talking to the Missionaries. Fortunately my friend gave me some of the discussions and answered my questions and there were just so many things that felt right and made sense to me. I had been raised in another church, I was a Christian and I’d always wondered things like why does our church not has any prophets and apostles. Why don’t we have some of these practices? I always sensed that I had lived someplace before I came to this earth and that this was just a passing stage here. So all these things, like the Plan of Salvation, the Church organization, Baptism for the Dead even, all the vicarious work that goes on in the Temples , everything just made sense to me and I just, I felt like I had to do it. I got to a point where I thought that I know enough and I really believe that the Church is what it claims to be and so I took the plunge and I haven’t looked back since and had a wonderful Mission to Argentina a just little over a year later and then I’ve been on this amazing ride ever since.
Steadman: When you talk about the conversion process for you, people will often say well I’m still being converted, that’s not what I’m referencing too but when you first were sort of introduced to the Church at the time you were baptized were you pretty quick, were you hesitant but knew that was where you would end up you just wanted to check some boxes. What was that like?
Elliott: If I were to draw a graph of it it would be just a very gradual upwards slope until the last few weeks and then it took a big, it went up very quickly because before then I was just feeling like I wasn’t ready for it and I still had a fair number of questions but then I got to a point there just a few weeks before I was baptized where my friends basically said you know everything that you need to know to make a decision now it is up to you. You have to make that call you have to make it a matter of prayer. I had said prayers before but this time I knew that this was a prayer that was really really important. So I gave it my all and to follow Joseph Smith’s example of the not doubting as he talks about in his First Vision and then I just felt a warmth and it felt the feeling that this was something I could do and should do and that I would never know unless I actually stepped forward and took on that new way of living that new whole thing of the membership in the Church and so it really, everything kind of registered at that point. Everything made sense and even though the months that followed after being baptized I had lots of questions still, I had some adjustments to make as far as getting used to the cultural aspects of the Church and understanding how things worked it was everything reconfirmed my feelings about the veracity of the Gospel message.
Steadman: It is so interesting to me when we talk about conversion and when we talk about Joseph Smith especially the prayer in the Sacred Grove we deal with it with such reverence, right, because it was the time when he was able to see God the Father and Jesus Christ and with good rife and respect we think of that. But in the scope of your own very personal life you look at that time that you prayed as to whether or not you should join the Church, right? Your friends essentially saying you’ve got all the information, pray about it. How impactful was that decision. That then you made to join the Church and follow the promptings of the Spirit. I think sometimes we look sort of outward and go absolutely life-changing. But each of us have those opportunities and have those experiences that vary individually you can look back at and say your life is completely different from that one or a couple prayers that you uttered before you ever joined the Church.
Elliott: Yeah that’s is a good point, it is amazing to see these points these spots in our lives where everything hinges on just a single decision. Like the person that we marry, or a decision like this one and I think sometimes we’re tempted to wonder what would have happened if I had gone a different way. In this case it felt right at the time as it’s felt right and I just always felt that I needed to just give it my all and the New Testament messages the Savior’s teachings there and The Book of Mormon made it clear about the importance of enduring to the end despite any trials and challenges that come up so I kept that part. I’m grateful to my parents were those kind of people too. My Dad fought in the Battle of The Bulge in World War II, he was a very quiet man did not talk a whole lot about that or his feelings but he was steady and constant and just believed in following through on your commitments and that really made him, to me, it made him a great person. It brought so many blessings to him, I could see that so I felt that I should do the same with my decision to join the Church.
Steadman: What you were describing just a moment ago it sort of because of the time of year probably, maybe I would think of it anyway, that George Bailey moment where we think did my life matter? The whole essentially plot of It’s A Wonderful Life, would the world be better off if I hadn’t been around or what is the impact of those one or two decisions made. So I want to ask you, lots of people that when they are younger still of eligible age to serve a Mission join the Church and decide not to serve a Mission, perfectly permissible, a great way to go for those folks. What was it that made you decide, hey now not only do I know this is true, but I have to go and teach the people of Argentina?
Elliott: Yeah I think that I was different. You know I was raised in a different church and every Sunday the New Testament would be read from the pulpit and I just remember at a very young age hearing the scriptural passage where Jesus said Come Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. We had a missionary from our congregation who was a medical missionary, she was a doctor in India and so she spent most of her time in India and she would come back every few years and report to the congregation. I always thought I wish I could be a missionary but I’m not cut out to be a doctor and I don’t think I’m cut out to go live in India for the rest of my life but I just thought how could that possible be. Why would Jesus ask something like that if it weren’t a possibility for the members of the church or the rank and file? So when I joined the Church right away within weeks I knew that was an answer to those longings that I had had as a child and so I was probably the happiest Missionary in the MTC because I thought I’d been waiting so many years without even having any hope or even understanding whereas a lot of the Missionaries were happy to be there, they had grown up in the Church and knew that they were doing the right thing but I had a different perspective on it I think because of the outside of the Church.
Steadman: If people ask you to share a Mission story, when you think of a Mission story, whether it is faithful or silly or scary or whatever. What is a Mission story that you can share with them?
Elliott: Oh well my favorite Mission story really was, I’d been there for almost a year and had not heard any organ music at all. I’d been in small cities, in our chapels we had little reed organs that you pump with your feet or pianos or electronic organs and so I’d just been transferred to a new area in a bigger city, the city of Rosario that was headquarters of the Mission and we were tracting and walked past a church and heard the sound of a real pipe organ being played inside. I was just thrilled and stopped and listened and my companion just nudged me and said why don’t we go inside and check it out and I just did not feel comfortable with that. He persisted and as we were walking up the stairs one of the Priests came out the door and my companion said that my friend here is an organist from the United States and we just heard the organ and is it ok for us to go in. He said fine he showed us where the stairs were up to the balcony where the organ was located. We walked up the stairs to the balcony and stood there and then the organist sensed that we were there, he turned around, stopped playing and in perfect English he said Elders what are you doing here? And it turned out that he had taken the Missionary lessons, discussions, eight or nine years before that and had taken English lessons with the Missionaries and just felt a real kinship with the Church but had never joined the Church and so he had been kind of on his own for years and years and suddenly two Missionaries show up in his organ loft. So we became his friends, we are still friends many many years later. He ended up getting me into a lot of different churches there to play the organs on our P Days and that was a neat experience, little blessing in the middle of all the other work we did.
Steadman: What was it about the organ that had you so excited? You said that you were sort of raised on music but lots of people like your friend the tuba player would kind of go that way or a trumpet is what attracts them. There aren’t a lot of kids I don’t think and maybe I need to ask more kids who say, an organ that’s what I want to play. That’s my thing.
Elliott: Yeah for me I’d always heard it in church on Sunday’s and I sort of played the piano when I was six years old and loved the keyboard, the feel of the keyboard ,loved the sound of the piano and just the organ kind of gradually became something that interested me but the pivotal moment really in 9th grade we had to do a project for my English class and I got the idea of doing something that involved the pipe organ in our church playing piece to accompany the reading of a piece of poetry. So I called up our organist and said I’d like to do this school project, is it ok for me to come in and horse around on the organ. He said sure I’d be happy to help you out. So while I was doing the project I actually played a piece from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky that I’d been playing on the piano and the Pastor came through just at that time heard me playing and said why don’t you play that at church this Sunday? And so I said fine and I got a little coaching from the organist and ended up playing it at church. A few weeks later the organist wanted to take Sunday off and so he asked me to play for the whole service and I did that and made a lot of mistakes but somehow got through it and then a couple months later he resigned and the Pastor asked me to take the job. So I was 15 years old, I had a paying job and it paid pretty well for a 15 year-old and so that was really how I got started. Then in college I still wasn’t sure if that was the path I wanted to pursue but I thought that if I got a degree in organ playing there were a lot of options that didn’t necessary involve playing at church. At the time I thought I might want to be a studio musician, I mentioned that earlier and thought the organ will get me some background in music theory and if I get a degree in organ I can get a job playing at a church playing on the weekends and then pound the pavement during the week trying to drum up work in studio. So that was the plan when I started out.
Steadman: You know my fingers were crossed a little bit Rick, so I hope it is alright that I call you Rick maybe I should call you Richard. I was hoping that it would be the inspiration to play the organ would be like some early music from the Doors, some of these songs from the mid to late 60’s that have just that very you know ”rocky” church organ that have inspired so many people that kind of do that. The fingers are uncrossed I know now where your history comes from but I appreciate you sharing that with me. Let’s take a break, when we come back in the second block I want to pick it up right where you just left it where going to college and making that decision that’s like hey this is it this is Richard Elliott’s life. We’ll come back and do that in the second block of The Cultural Hall.
Steadman: Here in the second block of The Cultural Hall I need to let you know that is Go Tell It On The Mountain from 2008 and we will talk about that great number from our guest Richard Elliott right after I tell you about if you are a patriotic subscriber of The Cultural Hall you actually get to see the video we are recording today of Richard at his place over at the Conference Center where he is hiding from all the construction going on at Temple Square and me from my studio being able to see the behind the scenes you can only get if you are a patriotic Saint. Go to patriotic.com/theculturalhall and you can pledge anywhere from $3 and $10 a month to be able to enjoy that great content. In addition to being a member of the secret but not sacred Facebook group that we have for all of our patriotic Saints. So, Richard, Rick little Ricky Elliott I don’t know what to call you. That was an amazing song that I shared Go Tell It On The Mountain and you have to say “mounain” especially if you are in Utah because you can’t pronounce the “t’s”.
Elliott: You got it
Steadman: Let us hear the story about that, where, why, how all that
Elliott: In 2008 late summer I had an accident and I had a severe injury to my left arm. It required surgery and there was some concern over whether I’d be able to continue playing or continue my career after that. So it was a really trying experience, the surgery was successful I’m happy to say, but it did take about three months to regain full strength of my left arm. During that period we were coming up on the annual Christmas Concert of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and at that point I was had already started this annual tradition of having an organ piece at the concert. So I was thinking what I am I going to do if my left arm is not completely healed. We were getting closer and closer to that date and so I was tinkering around in one of the practice studios here on one of the smaller organs and got the idea of writing a piece where my two feet played a lot of the piece where the left foot is playing the baseline and the right foot is playing the melody and then later on both hands joined in but mostly it was my right hand and feet who were doing all the work and the left hand was just kind of able to glide through without too much effort. So that was the solo Go Tell It On The Mountain and it was very well received and I felt really good about it and as a result it has had a lot of views and something that I’m just glad because if it kind of represents the philosophy that if life gives you lemons you make lemonade. You just do what you can to make h best of a situation. So during that period when a lot of practicing just with my feet alone and honed my pedal technique a little bit more from what it had been before the accident. I gathered music that was written for feet alone and just took full advantage of that time to keep moving forward.
Steadman: A unique time and one that as you probably look back you can remember you know the question the frustration that you were facing, the hard work that went into that particular thing. That’s cool and to see that it pays off in a way that people really love watching too. You mentioned that it has a views over a million views of people checking it out on-line and we’ll leave a link for that in the show notes of this episode so that people can see that. Now when you go to college, and you sort of cued this up, but I just want to ask you right on the head, when you go to college I feel like and I don’t know that is it is necessarily just within the Church but when we talk about things like “The Arts”, I am a child of the arts. I got a degree in theatre but in the arts more than any other discipline we face something in our collegiate training where we go am I really going to do this or should I settle for the thing that will provide for my family or more easily provide for our family or you know or whatever that is. What is, obviously you chose to follow the organ, what is the importance of following that thing which we are so passionate about?
Elliott: I remember a story about a man bumping into Yasha Heifetz in Central Park, New York City and the man said to Heifetz, I just want to thank you because years ago you heard me play the violin and asked you if I should do this as a career and you told me that there was no passion in my playing. So I gave up on that and I got into I think it was insurance or something like that and I’ve had a good life and Heifetz said to him, well the thing that you don’t understand sir is that I tell everybody the same thing. There’s no passion and I figure that the ones that are going to make it are going to stick it out regardless of what I say and what may discourage them. And so that’s one way of looking at it. For me, I did actually get out of music for a while several times during my education when I felt that maybe that it just wasn’t viable and just getting dragged back in more by other people than by my own feelings and so I’m very fortunate that way that other people recognized that there was potential there and encouraged me to stick to it. The last time that happened, I had finished my Master’s Degree and was working full-time in a library at the University in Rochester, New York and got a phone call from my organ professor and he said I want to take you out to lunch and over lunch he said there’s somebody who is willing to pay for your Doctorate. An anonymous donor and that was enough to make me feel that maybe there was something to this and I took that as a sign that was really where I belonged and right away just felt fired up and so things have worked out ever since.
Steadman: Now where does family and significant others rank all that, where does that play in this equation?
Elliott: Well at the time I was single then and so I got married soon after that. My wife was a classmate there at the Eastman School of Music but my parents just loved music and always encouraged that. My mom drove me to piano lessons without fail, my dad would always enjoyed me playing anything I wanted to play so they were very encouraging even though they said they would have supported me in whatever I wanted to do but they never really tried to push me in another direction. They always said we’ll stand behind you whatever you choose to do. So that makes a big difference to have supportive parents and a supportive spouse. So that has made a big difference to me.
Steadman: And then I’m sure along that the way and after the doctorate there have been some difficult times, has it been that you look back on that young you serving a Mission and finding your way through the Church that’s it been a calling of God, your wife saying come on Richard get back to it, you need to get back to it. What has kept you going during the hard times since then?
Elliott: I think a lot of what drives me is just the desire to share something with others and make people happy. There are some musicians that feel like that they have a message that they want to share that’s about the music itself or that they simply want to conquer this mountain. They want to learn every piece of music that Johann Sebastian Bach ever wrote for the organ or they want to play every great organ on the planet and things like that. But for me I’ve never really been driven by those things, its more that I just get a real sense of satisfaction out of making people happy or helping them to solve problems or deal with issues through music and this year especially with the pandemic it’s been a tremendous blessing for the organists here, my colleagues and I to be able to do the live stream of the pipe organ recitals we are doing here while the choir is still on hiatus. We’ve gotten so many e-mails and calls and letters from people saying that music is just the one thing that brings them hope, helps them get through the day. Helps them deal with their worries and concerns. So all along that has really been the thing that’s kept me in it and I’m thankful that I’ve been able to make a difference in people’s lives that way.
Steadman: We’re footnoting, can you tell people about those recitals if they have never heard of them and had the opportunity to watch, what are they?
Elliott: So starting back in July, well actually in June I guess, we began doing three live streamed recitals a week a week from Temple Square, The Tabernacle, the Conference Center, this week in the Assembly Hall. So we have been going back within the different organs. They take place at 12:00 noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They run for a half an hour and they are broadcast on the choir’s YouTube channel and also the choir’s Facebook page and on the Church’s broadcast page as well. People can find those links on the Tabernacle choir’s website which is thetabernaclechoir.org. We’ve always had these noon recitals on Temple Square for over 100 years with a live audience but we have not had an audience obviously since back in March here. After several months of having no recitals at all I spoke with the choirs administration and we all agreed that this as something that we could explore and it’s been a real success so far. We are grateful to have the viewership.
Steadman: It is interesting that within the Church I think that we take for granted what we have and I think that you are one of the things that we take for granted and I know that you are a humble person so get ready to get a little uncomfortable as I pay you a tremendous compliment. That you will be just like, oh okay don’t shine the spotlight on me, but you are sought after organist that has played all over the world. Can you share some of those experiences about playing either with other groups or a particular organs, I know you haven’t sought out to play all of them but they are significant in experiences that you’ve had.
Elliott: Yeah sure, those have been wonderful memories for me and of course Europe is still the mecca as far as pipe organs go and I’ve been fortunate enough to play in a number of countries in Europe both with the choir and as a soloist. A year ago this summer I was in England and played at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London which was a remarkable experience. I’ve also played at Selby Abbey up in Yorkshire and then Coventry Cathedral where a good friend of mine is the organist and then finally at Hyde Park Chapel which is just legendary among organists in the Church. A number of them cut their teeth there, sort of paid their dues. Robert Cundick whom I replaced at the Tabernacle had been an organist there for several years back in the 1960’s. A number of friends of mine over the years have had assignments there, a number of Tabernacle organists had assignments there. So it was a great opportunity to play that organ. Over in Germany several times, Switzerland and Ghana, Africa couple of years ago. There are very few pipe organs there so we used an electronic organ that I played for several choir festivals there, did some solo work as well and that was a culmination of a life’s dream to set foot on the African Continent. In Israel on of the most amazing organs in the world is actually in the BYU Jerusalem Center on Mount Scopus overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. The organ by itself is a Marcussen. It was built in Denmark by Marcussen, but the auditorium in which it is located has all glass walls and the audience is seated sort of on a slope there so they’re looking at the old city of Jerusalem out the windows while the organ is behind them playing and for an evening concert with the lights on in the auditorium it appears that the organist is literally dancing on the rooftops of Jerusalem.
Steadman: Oh wow
Elliott: Which is a real experience. So those are just a few great memories from over the years.
Steadman: It begs the question, is there that white whale out there that one organ that you have not been able to travel too or been able to experience from a player’s perspective that before Richard Elliott sheds this mortal foil and heads on to the next one that you’ve got that one thing that you need to do?
Elliott: Well I don’t know, ive never really sought out any of these. They have always just dropped into my lab so what I’ve thought of and always thought it would be neat to be able to play at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and was actually about to explore that through contacts I had when tragically when the Cathedral caught fire and so im hoping maybe after it is put back together and the organ has been cleaned up and re-installed that I might have that opportunity someday but if it doesn’t work out I’ve still had just a great a great ride. I’d be fine without that.
Steadman: I there is something Heavenly about, so we think about the Temple being God’s house on earth and we go and we make covenants and promises there, and certainly for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that in that very thing. Is there a certain reverence is not the word Im looking for, is there a certain feeling, that’s the wrong word, but we will go with feeling, that as you enter these in some cases thousands and in most cases at least 100 year-old houses of worship where people have come to know God and come to know Christ, is there something spiritual in the nature of just being there and then being able to play this very worshipful Heavenly music?
Elliott: For sure, I think that is the appeal of the organist that it is not just a concert hall, it’s not just a Steinway piano. These organs have history, these buildings have history and there have been many people over the centuries that have worshipped there, have taken their burdens to the Lord there and received comfort there through the music playing through the worship and so yeah we definitely have, speaking for all organists we all feel a reverence for those environments and we considerate it Holy Ground of a different type from our Temples for different reasons but still never the less, Holy places. We feel privileged to set foot there and to add to their music program.
Steadman: I want to take a break. We’ll come back in the the third block there are three questions that we ask everyone who steps into The Cultural Hall I’ll ask those of you plus I have some random things that I’ve wondered about the organist that plays with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. We’ll get back and do that in the third block of The Cultural Hall.
Steadman: Here in the third block of The Cultural Hall thank you so much for finding your way to The Cultural Hall, it’s been around a decade and encourage you if you love this episode, and I don’t know how you couldn’t, to share it with a friend. Someone from your Ward, maybe a family member and say hey have you heard about that thing The Cultural Hall and my hope is that their response is yeah where have you been? But if that’s not the case that they go oh no I’ll and definitely have to check that out to be able to enjoy it. You can find us on all places where you can shows available, podcast form and on all the social media’s at The Cultural Hall. So you can find us there. Now that song that we played as we were coming back is called Hot Pipes that’s you with the Orchestra at Temple Square. Let’s talk a little bit about that song?
Elliott: Sure, yeah I don’t exactly recall what year that was but in the Pioneer Day Concerts, Mack Wilberg always comes to me ahead of those concerts, Christmas concerts and we talk about the possibilities for the organ moment and for that one just because of programming this particular piece that I had heard about was a really good fit and it ended up going well. What I enjoyed about it was it, because I grew up hearing a lot of jazz my dad loved jazz and Dixieland, I’ve always kind of dabbled in that on the side and this particular piece Hot Pipes is one part of a four movement jazz concerto for organ by Canadian composer and each of the movements brings in a different flavor but this particular movement Hot Pipes is kind of a ragtime style and this seemed a good fit for the concert. Again it was well received and I had a lot of fun doing it.
Steadman: So now I just want to ask you a couple random questions because I’ve just always been curious. Are you able to turn off the organ so that if your foot slips during General Conference or something like that we wouldn’t get the loud “braangg” as your foot hit a pedal? Is there a way to sort of silence the organ?
Elliott: Well the quickest way is there is a little button on the right-hand end of the bottom keyboard and it is called a cancel button. That is it doesn’t turn off the air blowers it just pushes in all of the stops on the side so that even if you brushed the key it wouldn’t play. We could go one step further to be extra safe and turn off the organ completely but in the Conference Center that organ takes a whole minute to power up because it has six separate air compressors or blowers and they are, they go off in sequence because they will trip the circuit breakers if they all went on at once. So we careful not to turn off that organ unless we absolutely have to because if we suddenly had to turn it back on we would sit there looking at our watch for a minute before it would be playable.
Steadman: I’ve always been curious about that because I have to think that over, you’ve been with the choir for 30 years there had to have been, even if it was not intentional and just a foot twitch or something like that you would brush a pedal and if a noise came out you would be like the speaker, hang on. The speaker turns back to you, Richard, are we alright, are we alright back there? And then be able to focus on the meeting at hand. Another curious question that I have is in the time you have been the organist there have been a couple directors. Certainly with Craig Jessop before Mack Wilberg who is there presently. If you want to hear an interview where Mack and Brian sing the praises of Richard Elliott you can just listen back to an old episode of The Cultural Hall, it’s episode #320 so that you can tell that the love and appreciation is mutual. What was that transition like going from Craig Jessop to Mack Wilberg.
Elliott: So each conductor definitely has a different style so when I first came on board Jerald Ottley was the Music Director and Donald Riplenger was the Associate Director and then Craig Jessop came on and Mack and eventually Barlow Bradford for a while was there. So each one has their own, Brian Murphy was mentioned, so each one has their own style and it does take a while to figure that out and after a while you just kind of listened to what’s happening to the choir, the orchestra and the organist and each has to find where they fit within that framework. It’s especially challenging in the Conference Center because everybody is separated by so much space over there. The organists are way off on the corner of the stage, the orchestra is between us and the choir and then the organ pipes are actually behind the choir so it is further away from us. Since sound waves travel relatively slowly we’re hearing things at all different times we have to kind of figure out how to split the difference and fit things in there. As far as the conducting styles go yeah each conductor has a different conducting pattern and you end up kind of figuring out where in that pattern you need to make the beat fall it’s different for each one. Some of them are a little more expressive, some of them are a little more, do more time keeping. Some of them are more specific about when the cut-offs are and so you just learn it. And the orchestra player will tell you the same thing that it takes a little while and especially when you have a guest conductor you only have one shot to work with that’s when you really are kind of on edge because you haven’t had a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of their patterns and their style.
Steadman: That’s a very technical approach. I think in my mind I was thinking just the different personalities between those three gentlemen. They are three not the same people and so to know how they would work with the choir and the exposure, and the different events that would happen during that time. The ideas of collaboration or if its top-down in here, just play this Richard! And however those things might be during the time. It’s a fascinating thing, I have to tell you one of my favorite stories ever, and I think you can appreciate this, I will be short because it is all about you, but I think you will get a real kick about this. I attended church in the Salt Lake Stake so our Region Conferences take place in the Assembly Hall and so you are familiar with the Assembly Hall where the organ is it’s kind of up and back and there is a little bit of a line of sight issue from the organist to that person who is conducting. Well in my last Regional Conference we have our conductor is a PHD, teaches at one of the Universities but he also just happens to be in the Stake so he takes his calling very seriously as he conducts. We are a lay church where the organist doesn’t find themselves necessarily in that professional capacity but is there just doing their best as they can. Well the conductor is up there conducting but the organist is not able to keep up right? They hadn’t had the practice time that they needed and so about halfway through the song the conductor leaves where he stands and goes back to the organist and apparently has some sort of conversation as best as I can interpret from the audience and comes back and tries to pick back up where he left off and very intentionally sort of leads with bigger broader things as if to be more visible to the organist then stops goes back to the organist, this all while the song continues going on. It was a longer you know opening or closing number and goes back then he comes back for the third time to continue to conduct. And you can just see the frustration on his face. After about I don’t know maybe four or five measures in you see him flip the baton and walk down the stairs from the Assembly Hall and out into Temple Square. It was one of my favorite moments of the, we need to follow the conductor so Gospel Principle but like everyone is just doing the best we can and we need to have patience. But I just love that story so much.
Elliott: (laughing) I feel for the organist because we really do have a hard job because you’re off and you are hidden and in the Assembly Hall you cannot even see the director directly and you have a little TV monitor there and there is a camera mounted up on the organ. So we are trying to manage this organ that has all these different devices that a lot of which can go wrong and you are trying to make your feet go at the right time and your hands go. Meanwhile you are looking at this tiny little TV set or mirror or looking out of the corner of your eye and try to follow the conductor and stay with the congregation or the choir. My heart goes out to organists everywhere who have had that experience of not being able to be in sync with everything and I’ve had a few frustrating experiences like that myself. It is a challenging instrument to play but these things happen.
Steadman: That is a very kind way of saying what you just said. I think it is phenomenal, what you do being able to hear you play in person is and has been one of my favorite things. I haven’t been able to do it, you mentioned the yearly number that you do when the choir is performing that you have set it up so there is just that organ number. I don’t know where you came up with that idea, maybe I should ask you. Where did you come up with that idea to do that just a solo number?
Elliott: Well the original genesis was way back in the 1990’s. I did a solo of Un Flambeau, Jeannette Isabelle during a choir Christmas Concert in the Tabernacle at the time. It was well received but the real genesis was back in 2006, Craig Jessop was the Music Director, came to me and said we have a moment in the Christmas Concert where we have some dancers that need to get from one level to the other level and we’ve got to do it quick change of scenery at that point too. So he said could you come up with a piece that is maybe 2-2 ½ minutes long that could be played there and give us a little chance to get things reset, get people moved around. So I said great. I found a piece that was published by another composer based on French or Catalonian carol. I played that and it was very well received and just the fact that it was a little breath of fresh air in the middle of the concert and you suddenly had something different from choir and orchestra so Craig said the next year let’s do the same thing but this time why don’t you write it because then we don’t have to pay all the royalties and it is a little less complicated when we get to putting out the DVD and the CD and PBS program. That year I came up with a setting of I Saw Three Ships and again it went over really really well and that just sort of started the tradition and it this just been kind of expected ever since and I just worried that when I retire that I can make sure that that can continue to happen. By working with my colleagues here, we’re having sort of a Christmas organ solo school and I hope that is something that can be continued long after I’m gone.
Steadman: Is retirement a consideration at this point. Obviously you will at some point but is it something that you are looking to at day end or time?
Elliott: I don’t have any set plans at this point for right now im still enjoying what I’m doing until I’m able to do it. So for right now I figure, I do want to bow out close to the top of my game and not stay much longer than would be prudent and that’s a challenge for all musicians as it is for all athletes or anybody else where the body starts to give out and cause problems. Fortunately I have friends who are very good at telling me for when the right time is for things and are very honest with me. And so I’m relying on them to say hey it’s time to start thinking about retirement, so far nobody has said anything yet so I’ll keep it up.
Steadman: In the past I should think that your schedule looks a lot different than it does this year. You are prepping for a live concert that you will likely has a guest artist of note, I can’t remember who it was to be this year, had we announced it before Covid shut everything down?
Elliott: No they had not signed any contracts or engaged anybody so obviously those plans went by the wayside and for the PBS show this year that will be the broadcast of last year’s concert. That is already in the can. For next year’s we have some plans we are actively working on those right now and I’m actively working on an organ moment for that program. But that is all I can say about it right now. We do have a game plan for the PBS program for next year since there won’t be live concerts this year and then for next year we certainly hope that we will be at the point where we can have live concerts again. The choir will be back functioning by December 2021.
Steadman: But your schedule certainly I have to think looks different because you don’t have the multiple nights at the Conference Center this Holiday Season, you don’t have everything that entails this concerts. Like you mentioned you would be on Temple Square and the guests that would be coming there. That has gone virtual. How are you finding yourself transitioning this year into the Holidays and getting a part of the Spirit where so much of it has been attached to these performances, these different things in years past? What does Christmastime look like to you this year?
Elliott: It will be the first Christmas is years that I’ll be able to actually send out Christmas cards so I’m looking at the positive side of things which is this that year I’ll be able to have a Christmas a little bit more like those that my non-musician friends have. Christmas is a double-edged sword for a musician. It’s wonderful being involved in making all the wonderful music but it’s exhausting, it’s stressful and often there is very little time left over for family, for the things that you want to do. Like giving gifts and sending out cards so we are as a family we are kind of looking forward to that. My wife and I are empty nesters now as of a week ago, our youngest son just left for his Mission a week ago and so it will be a different Christmas with just the two of us there. Possibly with our older son from California. We are actually looking forward to it. My wife is the Ward choir director, this will be the first Christmas in ages that she hasn’t done a special Sacrament Meeting program or Handel’s Messiah. We generally did the Christmas portion of the Messiah every other year with our Ward choir with her conducting and me playing the organ but we won’t have any of that this year. So we are just going to enjoy having a little extra time and will use that time this year for other things. We’ve had some family emergencies we had to deal with so it ended up being good that we didn’t have the extra responsibilities this year because of the pandemic.
Steadman: It will create for many a Christmas not soon to be forgotten and I like your positive outlook on it. I have the three questions that we ask everyone who steps into The Cultural Hall but I have one more question, just a curious thing. I don’t know that you have a key to the Conference Center, I’m going to assume in my mind that you do and that you can go there after hours when no one else is around and there is no one in the Conference Center, you sit down at the organ. What is the song that you would play, empty house, you just want to sit down and play it at the organ?
Elliott: I can answer that authoritatively, yes so we can go in there all hours. In the Conference Center I don’t know I do crank it up when nobody is there but my most memorable experience really late at night was back after my arm injury that I mentioned between the time of the injury and surgery when I really was very worried and didn’t know how things were going to pan out. I came into the Tabernacle with my wife late at night when it was closed to the public and sat down with the lights all dim and with my arm in a sling as best I could I played through Come, Come Ye Saints which we play for all of our daily organ recitals and just felt a sweet assurance that things were going to be okay. As I played that thinking about the pioneers that built the Tabernacle and built the site of the Tabernacle organ it was just a wonderful moment one of the most spiritual moments I’ve had. On top of that after I played I looked over to the north out the windows of the Tabernacle and could see the Christus statue in the North Visitors Center just glowing white with the lights on it. Just between those two feelings just felt a remarkable sense of peace and of comfort. I know not every person on the planet or even member of the church have that experience of being in those buildings late at night. But that was a great moment and I felt that Heavenly Father speaking to me in a very clear way that we can all hear His voice regardless of where we happen to be, that He will tailor a message to our situation and circumstances.
Steadman: I appreciate you sharing that, it is a pretty sacred experience and that is one of the things that I’m most curious to see as they change up everything from Temple Square, where will that Christus be and looking forward it is a Christmas tradition for me to be able to gather at the feet of the Christus statue at the North Temple Visitors Center and sort of do a check-in. I come there every year and I go hey, been a while since I been here, what’s going on? And it really is one of the most sacred spots on the earth. I appreciate you sharing that. Alright the three questions we ask everyone, Rick. Everyone who steps into The Cultural Hall answers these.
1. Do you have a calling right now and if so what is it?
Elliott: I am the Ward organist. That’s it and of course ministering rather but yeah I am the Ward organist and choir accompanist. I’m teaching occasionally the Elders Quorum, teaching a lesson this Sunday but Ward Organist is my calling right now.
Steadman: As an artistic person do you ever wish, because I’m theatrical as I mentioned, like sometimes I’m like give me a clerk job. They always give the artistic people the very artistic sort of oriented things. Give me a records clerk job. Have you ever wished or wanted to do something that was completely unrelated to what you do during the week?
Elliott: For sure yeah, I have had some other experiences but when I came here to the Tabernacle we were discouraged from accepting callings that would take extra time and were actually encouraged to talk to our Priesthood leaders and there’s a letter that goes out every year or so to all the choir members all the members of the organization the this should be this persons primary calling. If they do have another calling then they will need to be released to take that calling. We have people who sometimes get a temporary release to become a Relief Society President or Bishop or something like that that takes a lot of time.
Steadman: All right my second question.
2. If you could pick a calling for yourself either one that exists or make one up, what would you pick?
Elliott: My favorite calling of all time still is Primary pianist. I just love being in Primary and seeing the enthusiasm and helping them to sing. That’s just a neat neat place. I’ve enjoyed that, I was on Stake High Council for a while and enjoyed getting a different perspective on how the Church works but I’ll take, I’m happy to have as many callings as many different kinds of callings as possible just to have the growth and have the opportunity to serve in that way so I’m not real picky.
Steadman: The last question we ask everyone and we also say interpret this question however you will. However you wish to respond. The question remains
3. What is your favorite part of your faith?
Elliott: My favorite part of my faith. I, boy that’s really hard to pin down, almost like asking my favorite piece of music is or composer. There are so many wonderful things out there. I think you know it is really the individual worth of each, of Heavenly Father’s children. I loved Elder Uchtdorf’s talk when he said to God “We are everything and to God we are nothing”. I think that this church better than any other church makes that clear that we have a long way to go, that we are expected to be perfect as Jesus is perfect. We need to set very high standards for conduct and for our spiritualty. At the same time Heavenly Father love us, we are His children and we have divine potential. We truly are children of God and that He is grateful for all of our efforts and that through the Atonement and through the Savior’s Grace that we can be saved and exalted. So I just see that that pull between two poles as being something that really is part of human nature, it is something that we all benefit from as opposed to thinking that we are worthless at the one extreme or that we are fantastic all around and don’t need to change and so that’s my favorite part of the Church.
Steadman: Well Richard, we hope that this episode has nourished and strengthened your body and if you are not heathy enough to listen this week that you will healthy enough to listen next week and when the time comes that you will be able to travel home in safety. In the mean time we will be saving a seat for you on the back row of The Cultural Hall.
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