Dr. Richard Anderson was raised in Arizona where he received his degree in Music Education from Arizona State University. From there he obtained his masters degree in piano performance at Northwestern University, and his doctorate in performance, pedagogy, and research from the University of Colorado. He studied with Dr. Donald Isaak at ASU, Gui Mombearts at Northwestern, and Dr. Keith Wallingford and Dr. Paul Parmelee at the University of Colorado. He also studied with Reginald Stewart, former head of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Dr. Anderson is in his 37th year at the School of Music at BYU. As a member of the piano performance faculty, he teaches private lessons to piano performance majors, courses related to piano pedagogy, and supervises the group piano program. He also teaches music theory and composition.

Dr. Anderson has published three textbooks related to group piano, numerous children's piano pieces, Excursions, a suite for marimba and piano, and articles related to group piano and piano performance and pedagogy. He has done publisher presentations at the national MTNA conference and has done pedagogy workshops throughout the Midwest and western states.

Along with his assignments in music at BYU, he also taught religion for 15 years and has published or presented articles related to the LDS religion. This past year, his book Your Divine Purpose, was published by Covenant Communications.

He and his wife Susan are both converts to the LDS church. Dr. Anderson served a mission to the Cumorah Mission, which at the time included all of upstate New York. He has served in three bishoprics, once as a bishop, several stints on the Stake High Council, as a branch president at the MTC, and various other ward callings. He and Susan are the parents of five children and nine grandchildren with two more on the way. Besides music, he is an avid sports follower (since he's too old to compete), loves golf even though golf hates him, and loves to read books related to church history and doctrine, World War II, biographies, good mysteries, and is a big fan of Louis L’Amour.