Frank W. Asper

Frank W. Asper was a composer and organist. He was an organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1925 to 1965. He performed approximately 5,000 organ recitals for Temple Square visitors and more than 1,000 network choir broadcasts during his career.

He was also the organist of the First United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City. He was a fellow of the American Guild of Organists. For more than 30 years, he also conducted the McCune Symphony Orchestra, which he founded.

He published many volumes of organ compositions.

Asper was born on February 9, 1892, in a musically inclined family. His father brought the melodeon across the plains by a covered wagon and this was Asper’s first instrument.[1] He played his first organ solo in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. He studied under Tabernacle Choir director Ebenezer Beesley as a youth and then went on to study at Stern Conservatory in Berlin, the New England Conservatory, Boston University, the University of Utah, and Chicago Musical College.

Seven of his compositions were included in the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The best known is probably #176 “’Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love.”

He died on November 8, 1973. His first wife, Florence, and their two infant children preceded him in death. His wife, Ellen, passed away in 2001.