Idaho State University to present 31st annual Choral Invitational Concert on Oct. 15

The concert will feature 450 students from 11 high schools throughout Idaho who will participate in a two-day workshop. ISU Chamber Choir, Concert Choir and Women’s Choir will also perform.

Guest conductor Rollo Dilworth will direct both the concert and workshop. Dilworth is an associate professor of choral music education and chair of the music education department at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance. He also serves as the conductor for the University Chorale. He previously served as director of choral activities and music education at North Park University in Chicago for 13 years.

More than 150 of Dilworth’s compositions and arrangements have been published, and he has authored three books of choral warm-up exercises intended for elementary and secondary choral ensembles. Dilworth has conducted 43 all-state choirs at various levels and has conducted six regional honor choirs and four national honor choirs. He has conducted choirs around the country and has been invited to festivals and clinics in Canada, Singapore, Austria and France.

Dilworth will conduct students from Boise, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Rexburg, Rigby, Preston, Rupert and more. Each high school will get 30 minutes with Dilworth on the first day of the workshop, Oct. 14, where he will hear each choir perform and offer comments and suggestions. Individual solo singers from each high school will then participate in a vocal workshop with ISU voice faculty members Kathleen Lane, Diana Livingston Friedley and Geoffrey Friedley. 

“We are thrilled to host literally hundreds of high school singers in the Stephens Performing Arts Center where they are able to work with our voice faculty, hear the ISU Choirs and spend time in rehearsal with a nationally known guest conductor," said Scott Anderson, festival director and director of choral activities at ISU.

During the final concert on Oct. 15, Dilworth will pick two or three select choirs to perform independently and all 450 students will join Dilworth on stage to perform four songs.

The ISU Chamber Choir will perform Tomas Luis de Victoria's “Regina Caeli,” the world premiere of “Libera Me” by ISU music professor Thom Hasenpflug and the Ward Swingle arrangement of “Country Dances.” Anderson will also lead the ISU Concert Choir in presenting Victoria's O Quam “Gloriosum EstRegnam,” George Frideric Handel's “Glory and Worship Are Before Him” and Sara Teasdale's poem “Stars,” written by Eriks Esenvaldsm, which features choir members playing tuned water glasses. Soloists Isreal Bennett and Matt Spaletta will be featured in Keith Hampton's gospel setting of “True Light.”

The final concert costs $8 for general admission, $6 for ISU faculty/staff, $4 for pre-college students and free for ISU students. Tickets can be purchased at the ISU Box Office at (208) 282-3595.