About Richard Ellsasser
Richard Ellsasser (September 14, 1926 - August 9, 1972) was an American concert organist, composer, and conductor who was primarily active during the 1940s to 1960s. == Life and career == Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 14, 1926, he was a musical prodigy who studied piano and organ, first with his father Frederick Ellsasser, a musician in the Cleveland Orchestra, and later with Winslow Cheney and Albert Riemenschneider. Ellsasser also studied with Joseph Bonnet. At the age of seven, he toured the eastern United States as an organist with various symphony orchestras. He made his New York organ debut in 1937. He graduated high school with high honors at the age of 14. He attended Oberlin College briefly and later Baldwin-Wallace College (from which he obtained his Bachelor of Music degree), and graduated at age 17. At the age of 19, he became the youngest person in history to have played, from memory, all 200+ organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, In 1946, he embarked on a transcontinental tour of the United States that visited 27 states in two months. In the middle of the tour, on his 20th birthday, his airplane crashed near Stockton, California. Ellsasser and others were unharmed, but the tour's secretary William Akers died.
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