Richard L. Elliott is one of three full-time organists at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, where he participates in the daily recital series on the 206-rank Æolian-Skinner organ and accompanies the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the choir’s weekly radio and TV broadcast, “Music and the Spoken Word.” As accompanist for the Tabernacle Choir he has performed in many of the world’s great halls and appeared on numerous television and radio programs such the NBC “Today Show,” the “CBS Morning Show” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Elliott received his early musical training at the Peabody Conservatory. He went on to study organ at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he received the BMus degree, and the Eastman School of Music, where he received MM and DMA degrees. His organ teachers have included David Craighead, William Watkins, and John Weaver.

Prior to his appointment as a Tabernacle organist in 1991, Dr. Elliott was an assistant professor of organ at Brigham Young University. For several years he was an assistant organist at the John Wanamaker department store (now Lord & Taylor) in Philadelphia. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Dr. Elliott was a featured performer at the guild’s 1992 national convention held in Atlanta, Georgia, and at the multi-region convention held in Salt Lake City in 2003.

Dr. Elliott appears on fifteen recordings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In 1994 he recorded his first solo CD, “In the Shadows of the Everlasting Hills,” on the Pro Organo label. He has recorded a second solo CD on the Mormon Tabernacle organ, which will be released in 2007 on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir label. He has also recorded three compact discs in collaboration with fellow Tabernacle organists John Longhurst and Clay Christiansen.