NationalMemorial DayChoral Festival

A MUSICAL TRIBUTE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. SALUTINGAMERICA’S MILITARY & FALLEN HEROES

D r . C r a i g J e s s o pA r t i s t i c D i r e c t o r

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MUSIC CELEBRATIONS INTERNATIONALTHE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

THE AMERICAN VETERANS CENTERpresent the

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Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is much more than a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summer. To many people, especially the nation’s thousands of combat veterans, this day, which has a history stretching back all the way to the Civil War, is an important reminder of those who died in the service of their country.

In commemoration of this important holiday, Music Celebrations International, the American Veterans Center, and the United States Air Force, are pleased to sponsor and produce a unique Musical Tribute in our Nation’s Capital that honors veterans past

and present who have sacrificed so much for the liberties we enjoy in our country. The setting for this commemoration is historically the Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Music Celebrations International and the American Veterans Center are pleased to sponsor and produce a unique Musical

Tribute in our Nation’s Capital that honors veterans past and present who have sacrificed so much for the liberties we enjoy in our country – as well as around the world. The setting for this commemoration is historically the Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

An uplifting and inspired program of patriotic music is selected each year by Dr. Craig Jessop, the Festival Artistic Director.

Dr. Jessop is a former music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force music programs, where he served as director of the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants in Washington, D.C.; commander and conductor of the Band of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein, Germany; and commander and conductor of the Air Combat Command Heartland of America Band. Previous guest conductors have included Lt. Col. John Clanton, Col. Larry Lang, Col. (Ret.) Arnald Gabriel, and Weston Noble.

A Musical Tribute To America’s Veterans

They saw their injured country’s woe;The flaming town, the wasted field;Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;They took the spear - but left the shield.

Philip Freneau, American Poet

Sample ItineraryDay One: Friday, May 27, 2022

Day TWO: Saturday, May 28

Day Three: sunday, May 29

Day FOUR: MONDAY, May 30

• Arrive in Washington, D.C.• Meet your Tour Manager, who will escort the group through the

duration of the tour, for a panoramic motorcoach tour of Historic Washington, D.C.

• Visit and tour Arlington National Cemetery. Attend a Changing of the Guard Ritual at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

• Check-in to the hotel• Festival Welcome Dinner and introductions• Evening Festival Chorus Rehearsal• Overnight at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel• Morning Festival Chorus rehearsal• Lunch, on own• Enjoy a walking tour of the Lincoln, Korean, National World War II,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, and Vietnam Memo-rials, as well as a view of the outside of the Washington Monument

• Participate in a special Festival Wreath-Laying Ceremony to hon-or veterans

• Dinner at a local restaurant• Evening Festival Chorus Rehearsal• Overnight at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel• Festival Chorus Dress Rehearsal at The John F. Kennedy Cen-

ter for the Performing Arts• Boxed lunch provided at the Kennedy Center Café• National Memorial Day Choral Festival Performance in The

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts• Dinner at a local restaurant• Attend the National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of

the U.S. Capitol, featuring a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra (no reserved seating)

• Return to the hotel for overnight

• Breakfast at the hotel• Check-out of the hotel and board your motorcoach for transfer to

the pre-parade staging area• Sound-check and technical rehearsal at the National Archives

Building• Boxed lunch, provided• Festival Chorus Performance at the National Archives Build-

ing for the Opening Ceremonies of the National Memorial Day Parade on Historic Constitution Avenue

• Celebrate Memorial Day by attending America’s National Memorial Day Parade

• Depart for home

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. - John F. Kennedy

For choir inquiries, please contact:

Music Celebrations International1440 South Priest Drive, Suite 102

Tempe, Arizona 85281-6954Toll-Free: 800.395.2036

Fax: 480.894.5137www.musiccelebrations.cominfo@musiccelebrations.com

Music Celebrations International oversees choir invitations, manages the choir acceptance process and is the exclusive tour provider for the National Memorial Day Choral Festival.

To learn more about the National Memorial Day Festival visit

memorialdaychor alfestival .or g

Not merely an event for Washington, the

National Memorial Day Choral Festival is an event for the entire country—a major festival which seeks to draw the attention of

Americans to the real meaning for the holiday: honoring those who have served, and died, to preserve our liberties.

Sponsored by the

American Veterans CenterU.S. Air Force

Music Celebrations InternationalConcert and Tour Production by

NationalMemorial DayChoral Festival

Dr. Craig Jessop is Professor of Music and the founding Dean for the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. These appointments follow Dr. Jessop’s distinguished tenure as music

director of the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Head of the Department of Music at Utah State. He is the founder and Music Director of the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra which in 2018 celebrated their 10th anniversary with a critically acclaimed tour to England including performances at Ely Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral and Holy Trinity Church, Sloan Square, London. He has served as the music director of the Carnegie Hall National High School Choral Festival sponsored by the Weill Institute of Music at Carnegie Hall. Prior to his appointment with the Tabernacle Choir, Dr. Jessop was a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force music programs, where he served as director of the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants in Washington, D.C. (1980-1987); as commander and conductor of the Band of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein, Germany (1987-1991); and as commander and conductor of the Air Combat Command Heartland of America Band (1991-1995). He has also been music director of the Maryland Choral Society, the Rhineland-Pfalz International Choir of Germany and the Omaha Symphonic Chorus.

Dr. Jessop has a Bachelor of Science from Utah State University, 1973; Master of Arts from Brigham Young University, 1976; and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Stanford University, 1980.

In 2018 Dr. Jessop received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement in Arts Education from the Sorenson Legacy Awards for Excellence in Arts Education. In 2017 Dr. Jessop was named the Educator Laureate by Distinguished Concerts International New York at Carnegie Hall. In 2016 he received the Governor’s Leadership in the Arts Award, the highest award in the Arts from the State of Utah, from Governor Gary Herbert as well as the Art Administrator of the Year Award at the National Convention of the College Orchestra Director’s Association (CODA) in Salt Lake City. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the cultural life of Utah, Dr. Jessop received the 2014 Governor’s Mansion Performing Artist Award bestowed by Governor Gary Herbert. In 2013 he received the prestigious Madeleine Award for distinguished service to the Arts and Humanities by the Madeleine Arts and Humanities Council and in 2012 he was awarded the Utah National Guard’s Minuteman Award for service to the State of Utah.

Dr. Craig JessopARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Sponsored by theU.S. Air Force & the American Veterans Center

Music Celebrations International

Washington, D.C.

A MUSICAL TRIBUTE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. SALUTINGAMERICA'S MILITARY & FALLEN HEROES

Concert and Tour Production by

Under his direction, the Tabernacle Choir received numerous awards, including the coveted National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House. He has recorded over 15 CDs on the Telarc and MTC labels with the Choir and in 2008 received a Grammy nomination for his work with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.

At the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Dr. Jessop conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony, working with world-renowned artists Sting and Yo-Yo Ma, and composers John Williams and Michael Kamen. Other artists with whom he has collaborated include Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, Audra McDonald, The King’s Singers, Angela Lansbury, Claire Bloom, Walter Cronkite, and Charles Osgood. In 2003, Dr. Jessop conducted the choir and prepared the singers for a performance of A German Requiem at the prestigious Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Rafael Frübeck de Burgos. A much sought-after guest conductor, Dr. Jessop has been on the American choral scene for more than three decades. His tenure as Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and as director of the United States Air Force Singing Sergeants in Washington D.C. has taken him to the most prestigious concert halls of the nation and around the world including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Royal Albert Hall in London and throughout Europe and Asia. In 2013 Dr. Jessop was selected by the American Choral Directors Association to conduct the monumental Benjamin Britten War Requiem with the Dallas Symphony Chorus and Orchestra at their national convention, the fourth time in his career to conduct at the national ACDA conventions. He is also a frequent guest conductor at the prestigious Berkshire Choral Festival in Massachusetts and in 2018 was the resident guest conductor with the all professional Santa Fe Desert Chorale at their annual summer music festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He most recently has performed with the acclaimed American composer Morten Lauridsen and in concerts at the Sun Valley Pavilion with Tony Award winning actors/singers Kelly O’Hara, Brian Stokes Mitchel and Sutton Foster. He also prepared the American Festival Chorus for critically acclaimed performances of the Mahler 4th Symphony and the Verdi Requiem for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in the Sun Valley Pavilion.In addition to his work as a conductor, Dr. Jessop has been active as a baritone vocalist, first as a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and later with the choirs of Helmuth Rilling and John Rutter and with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers. He is a previous winner of the Metropolitan Opera regional auditions and San Francisco Opera auditions, and has participated in the Merola Opera training program of the San Francisco Opera.

He lives in the peaceful setting of the northern Utah valley of Cache County with his wife RaNae. They are the parents of four children and have ten wonderful grandchildren, 8 grandsons and 2 granddaughters.