Ottley, Jerold (7th April 1934-19th February 2021)

Arranger, author, brass musician, conductor, music director and vocalist from Salt Lake City, Utah, who attended Granite Seminary and served as a missionary at eighteen years of age in New Zealand. He took his formal studies at the Academy of Music in Cologne, Germany, Brigham YoungUniversity, the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, and the University of Utah.

After obtaining his doctorate in Oregon, he returned to conduct and teach in his home town. He also served as an adjunct professor, assistant professor, associate chair and instructor of music at the University of Utah.

In 1975, he was appointed conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. A couple of his early recordings with them were Hail to the Victors! and Yankee Doodle Dandies, which were done with The Columbia Symphony Orchestra. Jerold and the choir had a deal with Columbia Records that the choir could release one album a year that they wanted, and one that Columbia wanted. Jerold wanted to record church music, and Columbia wanted to record secular music. Thus, the choir came to be known for its versatility.

On the religious side of things, Jerold directed the choir at the annual Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints General Conference. Their eclectic recording career was exemplified in 1979 with the release of A Grand Night for Singing and Oratorio from the Book of Mormon.

The 1980s were peppered with albums religious and patriotic, such as Faith of Our Fathers: Traditional Hymns, Gloria!, Memories: Songs America Loves Best, The Power and the Glory: 10 Favorite Choruses, and Songs America Loves Best, Vol. III: The Twenties. Songs from America’s Heartland hit the shelves in 1991. In 1995, you could hear and see them in action on the holiday treat, Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

In addition to a busy recording schedule, Jerold led the choir on their long-standing radio and TV program, Music and the Spoken Word, presumably the longest-running radio show (and one of the longest-running TV shows) of all time.

Jerold also served as an adjudicator at competitions such as the Jubilation Church Choir Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and the National Invitational Choral Festival in Washington, D.C.

In July 1996, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made their long-awaited return to the Bay Area with two appearances at Davies Symphony Hall, where they performed American spirituals and music by Samuel Barber and Gustav Holst.

Jerold and his wife JoAnn and Mack Wilberg co-founded the Temple Square Chorale in July 1999. Concomitantly, they established the Tabernacle Choir Training School.

In 2000, Jerold contributed “A Case for Continuity” to the book, Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium. Continuing their commitment to music education, the Ottleys attended the Portland Regional Music Festival at the Beaverton Stake Center in Oregon, where they conducted seminars and Jerold served as guest conductor of the Northwest LDS Symphony, in March 2000.

On 5^th May 2000, the Ottleys were honoured as distinguished Utahns of the Year by members of the Salt Lake and Utah Valley chapters of the Brigham Young University Management Society.

Jerold joined forces with Keith Lockhart, Christopher Taylor and the Utah Symphony on 10^th November 2000 at Abravanel Hall, not as a conductor, but as a narrator, opening the ceremonies at an all-Copland affair with “Preamble for a Solemn Occasion”.

On 18^th October 2001, he attended the BYU-Idaho Forum, where he talked about “Appropriate Music in Our Lives”. Before the year was out, he had also directed the Wasatch Chorale in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall. Other groups with whom he worked include The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society and The Valparaiso Singers.

In 2002, he wrote the foreword to A Practical Guide for Performing, Teaching and Singing the Brahms Requiem.

The Faith Centered Music Association bestowed upon him their Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2003 Pearl Awards.

On 25^th February 2004, he was one of four honorees recognized on Founders Day by the University of Utah Alumni Association.

The Ottleys moved to Hawaii in 2005 to teach at BYU-Hawaii University. Jerold directed the University Chorale at the BYU-Hawaii University Devotional on 15^th March 2007. On 20^th June 2007, he directed the La’ie Choral Union at a reception for out-going President Eric B. Shumway. In addition to directing the choirs, he taught conducting and sat on the faculty advisory council. The Ottleys returned to Utah in 2008.

On 2^nd October 2009, they spoke at the Phineas Wolcott Cook Family Organization Cook-O-Rama. Jerold delivered the keynote address, “The Higgaion of Operosity”, at the Salt Lake City Chapter American Guild of Organists’ “Super Saturday”.

His arrangements include “How Lovely Are the Messengers” by Felix Mendelssohn. His recordings are too numerous to mention, and much of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s catalogue is available on CD, with titles such as Christmas with Marilyn Horne & the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Essential Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and 100 Years: Celebrating a Century of Recording Excellence.

He died from complications of COVID-19 in Salt Lake City, Utah in February 2021 following his diagnosis in November 2020. He was 86 years old.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir recordings
Silent Night (Franz Xaver Gruber/Joseph Mohr)
The Columbia Brass and Percussion Ensemble
Director: Jerrold Ottley
(CD: Silent Night: The Greatest Hits of Christmas)

Sources:

Ottley, Jerold (7th April 1934-19th February 2021)

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