{{Short description|American conductor (1934–2021)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Jerold Ottley | birth_name = Jerold Don Ottley | birth_date = {{birth date|1934|4|7|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Murray, Utah, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2021|2|19|1934|4|7|mf=yes}} | death_place = Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | alma_mater = University of Utah<br>University of Oregon | occupation = {{hlist|Music director|Conductor}} }} '''Jerold Don Ottley'''<ref>{{cite web | title=Historical Roster | work=Mormon Tabernacle Choir | publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | url=http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/roster/names?letter=O | accessdate=December 14, 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306110408/https://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/roster/names?letter=O|archivedate=March 6, 2005}}</ref> (April 7, 1934{{spnd}}February 19, 2021) was an American music director and choral conductor. He served as the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Choir) from 1974 to 1999. During his tenure, Ottley established the Choir's annual Christmas concert and appointed its first female organist. Prior to that, he was assistant chair of the University of Utah's Music Department.
==Early life== Ottley was born in Murray, Utah, on April 7, 1934, to Sidney and Alice Ottley.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Former Tabernacle Choir director Jerold Ottley dies at age 86|url=https://www.ksl.com/article/50111117/former-tabernacle-choir-director-jerold-ottley-dies-at-age-86|access-date=February 20, 2021|website=www.ksl.com|language=en}}</ref> He studied choral conducting at the University of Utah, where he earned a master's degree. He was subsequently granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Academy of Music in Cologne, and later earned a doctorate from the University of Oregon. He became a faculty member at the University of Utah's Music Department and served as its assistant department chair.<ref name=Owusu>{{cite news|title=Jerold Ottley, former Tabernacle Choir director passes away at 86|url=https://www.abc4.com/news/religion/jerold-ottley-former-tabernacle-choir-director-passes-away-at-86/|first=Mercy|last=Owusu|date=February 19, 2021|access-date=February 20, 2021|publisher=KTVX|archive-date=February 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222024513/https://www.abc4.com/news/religion/jerold-ottley-former-tabernacle-choir-director-passes-away-at-86/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Career== Ottley first worked with the Choir as assistant director on a part-time basis.<ref name=Owusu/> In 1974, he was requested to act as the Choir's musical director and accepted the position,<ref name=Tabin>{{cite news|title=Jerold Ottley, who led the famed Tabernacle Choir to even greater heights, dies of COVID-19|url=https://sltrib.com/religion/2021/02/20/longtime-tabernacle-choir/|first=Sara|last=Tabin|date=February 19, 2021|access-date=February 20, 2021|newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune}}</ref> succeeding Jay E. Welch.<ref name=Owusu/> Under Ottley's leadership, the rules regarding the Choir became more restrictive; prospective members needed to have a recommendation from the lay leaders of their local congregation (ward or branch). This is recognized as giving the group a more religious direction. An attendance policy was also instituted and auditions came to be more formal and organized.<ref name=Tabin/>
Ottley's duties with the Choir included the preparation and performance of nearly thirteen hundred weekly radio and television broadcasts of ''Music and the Spoken Word''. He also led the choir in more than thirty commercial recordings and more than twenty major tours, in addition to regular concerts in the Choir's home in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.<ref name=Owusu/> The group sang at the inaugural march of the 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who labelled them "America’s Choir".<ref name=Owusu/><ref name=Tabin/> Eight years later, they performed at the inauguration of George H. W. Bush, who described them as "a national treasure".<ref name=Tabin/> Ottley appointed Bonnie Goodliffe as one of the Choir's organists in 1988. She was its first female organist; Goodliffe later described Ottley as being "very forward-thinking".<ref name=Tabin/> He also established the group's annual Christmas concert.<ref name=Tabin/>
After Ottley retired in 1999, he was involved in volunteer work for four years as administrator and teacher for the Choir's Training School at Temple Square, as a Choir staff volunteer to revise the choral library computer database, as artistic advisor to the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, and as bishop of his ward in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). From 2005 to 2008, he directed the University Chorale, taught music education courses, and assisted in administration at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, a LDS Church-owned university in the town of Laie, on Oahu's north shore.<ref name=Tabin/>
==Personal life and death== Ottley married JoAnn South in 1956,<ref name=ChurchNewsOttley>{{cite news |url= https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-02-19/jerold-ottley-tabernacle-choir-director-dies-covid-related-illness-204708 |title=Jerold Ottley, longtime Tabernacle Choir director, passes at age 86 from COVID-19-related illness|last= Taylor |first= Scott |date= February 19, 2021 |newspaper= Church News }}</ref> and they remained married until his death.<ref name=Tabin/> She was an accomplished soprano who, like her husband, was a Fulbright scholar at Cologne's Academy of Music.<ref name=Fredde>{{cite news|title=Former Tabernacle Choir director Jerold Ottley dies at age 86|url=https://www.ksl.com/article/50111117/former-tabernacle-choir-director-jerold-ottley-dies-at-age-86|first=Ashley|last=Fredde|date=February 19, 2021|access-date=February 20, 2021|publisher=KSL-TV}}</ref> Together, they had two children, Brent and Allison.
Ottley and his wife were diagnosed with COVID-19 in November 2020 during the pandemic in Utah. He died from complications of the virus in Salt Lake City, on February 19, 2021, at age 86.<ref name=Owusu/><ref name=Tabin/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060908015516/http://w2.byuh.edu/academics/divisions/far/ottjer.html Biography page at BYU-Hawaii] * {{IMDb name|2016242}} * {{AllMusic|0001520277}} * {{Discogs artist|Jerold Ottley}}
{{Tabernacle Choir music directors}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ottley, Jerold}} Category:1934 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century American conductors (music) Category:21st-century American conductors (music) Category:American choral conductors Category:American Latter Day Saints Category:American male conductors (music) Category:Brigham Young University–Hawaii faculty Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Utah Category:Musicians from Utah Category:People from Murray, Utah Category:Tabernacle Choir members Category:Tabernacle Choir music directors Category:University of Oregon alumni Category:University of Utah faculty