POCATELLO — Ever heard a Buddhist monk sing?

Those in Pocatello will get the chance to listen and watch choirs from around the world — including Poland, China, Spain and Costa Rica — perform over the next few days as part of the 2023 Idaho International Choral Festival, held from now until Saturday evening.

The festival, which brings hundreds of talented singers from around the globe to Pocatello every three years, held its opening ceremony Wednesday morning with evening concerts that night featuring choirs such as Spain’s VEUS — Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió, Costa Rica’s Coro Intermezzo and the only Buddhist choir in the world, the Tiantai Buddhism Conservatory Dawn Choir.

“The choirs that we get are really extraordinary,” said Scott Anderson, the artistic director and co-founder of the 2023 Idaho International Choral Festival. “We’re probably making history here this year because the only Buddhist choir in the world is here in Pocatello. … They were originally from China but because of (persecution) … they moved their monastery to of all places Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. So here you have this big colony of Chinese monks living on Madagascar and that’s where they came from to be with us. I’ve been in choral music 40 years and I’ve never seen or heard a group like this. It’s really unique.”

Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at Jensen Hall the Spring Women’s Choir will perform, followed by the Poznań Boys’ Choir from Poland. At Frazier Hall at that same time the public can listen to the Regional High School Honor Choir from Idaho, the Portneuf Chamber Singers, and the Tiantai Buddhism Conservatory Dawn Choir.

Friday’s schedule begins at the Idaho State University Pond Student Union Building outdoor stage from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with free choral performances from the Tiantai Buddhism Conservatory Dawn Choir, Coro Intermezzo, the Regional High School Honor Choir from Idaho and Poznań Boys Choir from Poland.

Anderson said Coro Intermezzo has won two international choral competitions, and Poznań Boys’ Choir has performed more than 2,200 concerts around the world.

“The variety of both culture and musical style is extraordinary,” Anderson said. “I’ve taken, I don’t know, a dozen or so international trips with my choirs. But even going out of the country, a person can’t see and experience all these various nationalities and ethnic groups in one place. I mean, you can travel for a month and not hear this variety. So that’s another thing we think is really great for our area when this (festival) comes around. It could be the first time somebody will ever see a Buddhist choir in their life.”

At 7 p.m. Friday at Jensen Hall performances will be held by the High School Honor Choir and Coro Intermezzo, and at the same time at Frazier Hall performances will be held by Poznań’s Boys’ Choir and VEUS — Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió.

“(VEUS) not only sings but they actually do a lot of movement and dance with their performance, so there’s a lot of big visual components with them,” Anderson said.

On Saturday, for individuals who want to view all the choirs perform, there will be the Gala Concert at 7 p.m. at Jensen Hall.

To have such a diversity of cultures and ethnicities performing music under one roof is something that Anderson says isn’t common. The only other festival similar to the Idaho International Choral Festival that is regularly recurring is held in Missoula, Montana, and in fact will be holding their festival the week after Idaho’s.

Anderson explained the board of Idaho’s choral festival has worked out a beneficial plan with the board members of Missoula’s festival, which has been around since 1984 compared to Idaho’s 1999 start. Bringing in international choirs gets costly for those traveling, so the two boards decided to hold the festivals back-to-back, with each three-year cycle changing the order of who goes first.

“I think we’re sharing four choirs, four out of the seven we have here are going to go up to Missoula next week,” he said. “So it really helps both of us in recruiting international choirs because everybody spends a lot of money when they come over here just for travel, and when they have the opportunity to do something for two weeks, it’s much more alluring to them when they can do two festivals and see two different areas of the country.”

Another way that the Idaho’s choral festival board has helped alleviate costs on the visiting choirs is to host them in the homes of local volunteers. The coordinator of housing works with groups beneath her to identify families who will volunteer to take at least two people at a time, Anderson said.

“One of the biggest things that makes our festival work is that people from Pocatello house all these international singers every night,” he said. “That’s not usually something that is possible in places like New York metro or Chicago or San Francisco. Typically (in) those bigger cities it’s much more likely they stay in hotels. But here in a smaller place there’s a neat intimacy of getting to know and having cultural exchanges with people that come.”

This opportunity that allows people from different countries and backgrounds to meet in hospitable circumstances has even created friendships that have lasted years.

“For some families it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Anderson said. “Not everybody travels to China and even if they do, they don’t get to host and have those people that live there come and sit with them in their own restaurants. And some of our people develop relationships with their guests that last for years, … and in a few cases, (Pocatellans) have gone over to whatever country those people live in and have visited them there.”

For those interested in attending any of the concerts, tickets are $10 per individual for one concert or $30 per individual for all concerts, and $30 for a family or youth group for one concert or $50 for a family for all concerts. More information on the festival can be found at idahointerchoralfest.org.

“We have 300 people that are visiting us and we just hope that people in the area will come and take advantage of it,” said Anderson.