Keyboard player for Apricot Brandy and went on to a successful career as organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. The following blog from The University of Iowa was forwarded to me and I found to be very interesting. Here is Rick Elliott of Apricot Brandy in his own words: “As a teenager in Baltimore, Maryland, I played in a rock band called Apricot Brandy (I was not a Mormon at the time!). I built a theremin, which I played on various parts of my body during the solo section of an Emerson, Lake & Palmer medley. I had installed a magician’s “fingertip flashpot” inside the theremin, with a trigger so that I could shoot a ball of fire into the air at the end of my “solo.” One night I took to the dance floor among the teenagers, did my solo, and then watched in horror as the ball of flame shot out at a downward angle (due to over-packing the flash paper) and went straight for a dancer’s head. Fortunately, he ducked in the nick of time and I was spared embarrassment and a possible lawsuit. The end of my theremin story is that Vivian Rudow, a noted Baltimore composer, placed an advertisement in the newspaper seeking a theremin. In responding to her ad, I found that she was composing a piece for bassoon and theremin, wherein the bassoonist played the theremin with his feet at the same time he played the bassoon. I built her a theremin, after which she told me that I should get out of music and into electronics, where I could make more money and be a lot less miserable. I can’t help thinking that I’ve done the right thing in ignoring her advice. I may not be rich, but I sure ain’t miserable.” -Rick “P.S. I still haven’t been able to persuade our producer to let me do a flame-throwing theremin solo on the Tab Choir broadcast. “Richard Elliott, Organist, Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City. Thanks to University of Iowa blog
