Tabernacle organist chosen as Madeleine Award recipient

Friday, Aug. 01, 2025

SALT LAKE CITY — Principal organist of the Tabernacle Choir Dr. Richard L. Elliot, who has had a long association with the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Eccles Organ Festival, has been named the 2025 Madeleine Award winner. 

The Eccles Organ Festival is presented each fall and winter at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and features internationally recognized musicians, as well as masterclasses and public lectures.

Elliot will be presented with his award on Sept. 9 at The Madeleine Choir School at a special dinner.

“I was deeply touched when I read the letter from Bishop Solis” notifying him that he had been chosen for the honor, he said. 

Elliot grew up in Maryland, where many of his friends were Catholic, he said, and he had a great admiration for the faith, even serving as assistant organist at St. Ann Catholic Church in Hagerstown, Md. for two years.

“The first thing I thought when I read the letter was I just felt really grateful that I’ve been able to have this experience, and hope that my friends would feel good about that and know that I considered it a privilege and an honor to serve through all these years at the cathedral,” he said.

Elliot attended the Peabody Conservatory, and then the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. After two years there, he transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he finished his bachelor’s degree. He went on to complete a master’s program and doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music. He then accepted a position as a full-time organ faculty member at Brigham Young University. 

In 1991, he was appointed as a Tabernacle organist, participating in daily and weekly recitals and the broadcasts offered by the Tabernacle musicians and concerts on Temple Square. Since 2007, Dr. Elliott has served as principal organist of The Tabernacle Choir.

“Dedicating yourself full time to being a Tabernacle organist, it was really a good fit for me,” he said. “I couldn’t have written a better job description, considering what I do now, because there’s lots of variety in the music.”

As accompanist for the Tabernacle Choir, Elliot has performed in many concert halls and appeared on numerous TV and radio programs. He has also maintained an active performing career of his own. As a recording artist, he is featured on seven organ CDs and is a published composer and arranger of music for organ, choir and orchestra.

“I’ve played for all the major Christian faiths over all the years, and still feel like that’s been a great blessing, and it’s enriched my faith and also enabled me to better understand other religions and appreciate just the many, many great people that are out there,” Elliot said.

Gabriele Terrone, who organizes the Madeleine Festival and Eccles Organ Festival and also serves as the cathedral organist, expressed appreciation for Elliot.

“I’m very happy that they selected Richard Elliot because he has been a wonderful friend of the cathedral for several decades,” Terrone said. “Also, I’m honored to have collaborated with him on a number of projects. He has been on the board of the Eccles Organ Festival since the beginning, since 1994, so he has seen this festival grow and expand and become what it has become now. He has been an incredible supporter of the arts in our community.”

Elliot said he has been happy to be a part of the Eccles Organ Festival for those years. “From the very beginning, I saw that it really filled a need in the musical community and in our religious community in Salt Lake City. It’s just been wonderful to see how it’s thrived and stayed really, really relevant and well supported all through the years.” 

Programs like the Eccles Organ Festival and Madeleine Festival help build a bridge between the Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he said.

“I think that joining forces enables us to build on those commonalities and to look past the differences and past history and just see each other as children of our Heavenly Father and as disciples of Jesus Christ, who are striving to follow his teachings,” he said.

“Even people who don’t know how music is put together – they still sense that this is something that took effort and inspiration to create, and that helps them to connect at some level with the divine,” he added. “I think people can sense that part of that spark of divinity that’s in  every human being and then respond to that.”

For information about the Madeleine Awards dinner or to purchase tickets to the event,  visit the Madeleine Festival website, https://madeleinefestival.weebly.com/