Dr. Craig Jessop is Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Masters of Conducting Program with a Choral Emphasis at Utah State University. From 2010 to 2019 Dr. Jessop served as the first Dean of the Caine College of the Arts at USU. This appointment followed Dr. Jessop’s distinguished tenure as Music Director of the world-famous Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City and as Head of the Department of Music at Utah State University. He is the founder and Music Director of the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra which is now in its 18th season. 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. For the past 15 years Dr. Jessop continues to serve as the Music Director of the National Memorial Day Choral Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 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 Tabernacle Choir and in 2008 received a Grammy nomination for his work with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.
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 Music from Utah State University, 1973; Master of Arts in Choral Music Education from Brigham Young University, 1976; and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Stanford University, 1980.