The American Festival Chorus was founded in the summer of 2008 with Dr. Craig Jessop as Artistic Director and Conductor, and Dr. Cory Evans as Associate Director. The American Festival Chorus brings together 250-300 talented singers from a 50-mile radius, including many students from the Music Department at Utah State University and several local high school choral conductors.

The professional American Festival Orchestra is composed of USU music faculty, outstanding musicians in the community and the Northern Utah region and select senior USU students Principal strings are the Fry Street Quartet, hailed in the New York Times as “a triumph of ensemble playing.”