POCATELLO — Former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and current dean of the Caine College of Arts at Utah State University, Craig Jessop will serve as guest conductor for this year’s Choral Invitational Festival.

The annual event, hosted by Idaho State University’s Department of Music, is in its 27th year and will be held on Oct. 12-13 at the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center. The festival concert will open to the public at 7 p.m. on Saturday and features the ISU Chamber, Concert and Women’s choirs and guest singers.

Tickets for the event are $8 for adults, $4 for primary school students, $6 for ISU faculty and staff, and free to ISU students with valid Bengal card.

The Choral Invitational Festival has long attracted high school choirs form throughout the state and this year is no exception, as it will play host to nearly 500 singers from 13 Idaho high schools. They include Pocatello, Highland, Century, Bonneville, Caldwell, Hillcrest, Idaho Falls, Madison, Middleton, Minico, Preston, Skyline and Snake River high schools.

Jessop, this year’s guest conductor, is a native of Millville, Utah, best known for having been director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He has also been director of the American Festival Chorus since 2008 and director of the National High School Choir Festival since 2005. He has spent seven years serving as baritone for the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.

Scott Anderson, professor of music and director of choral activities at ISU, said Jessop, in addition to having once served as director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, “is known nationally and internationally for his work as a conductor, teacher and clinician.”

Tickets for the event can be purchased online at www.isu.edu/tickets, or by calling the Stephens Performing Arts Center’s box office at 282-3595.