13 Facts About Jerold Ottley

Jerold Don Ottley was an American music director and choral conductor.

Jerold Ottley served as the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1974 to 1999.

Jerold Ottley was born in Murray, Utah, on April 7,1934, to Sidney and Alice Jerold Ottley.

Jerold Ottley studied choral conducting at the University of Utah, where he earned a master's degree.

Jerold Ottley was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Academy of Music in Cologne, and later earned a doctorate from the University of Oregon.

Jerold Ottley became a faculty member at the University of Utah's Music Department and served as its assistant department chair.

Jerold Ottley first worked with the Choir as assistant director on a part-time basis.

Jerold Ottley 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.

Jerold Ottley appointed Bonnie Goodliffe as one of the Choir's organists in 1988.

Jerold Ottley was its first female organist; Goodliffe later described Ottley as being "very forward-thinking".

Jerold Ottley married JoAnn South in 1956, and they remained married until his death.

Jerold Ottley was an accomplished soprano who, like her husband, was a Fulbright scholar at Cologne's Academy of Music.

Jerold Ottley died from complications of the virus in Salt Lake City, on February 19,2021, at age 86.