Headliners for Scholarships

Applause, for Craig Jessop, head of the music department and, since May 16, the theater department as well, who conducted a formidable first season with his newly created American Festival Chorus and Orchestra and boosted support for USU scholarships at the same time.

“At the Performance Hall,” a series of concerts capped front and back with fundraising shows by national headliners, began this past Memorial Day with a sold–out performance by Donny Osmond at the Kent Concert Hall, and culminated with a trio of performances by international singing star Maureen McGovern and the American Festival Orchestra in Logan, Idaho Falls and Sun Valley.

Osmond's Las Vegas show included dancers and a live band. The performer wasn't sure at first if Jessop, the former Mormon Tabernacle Choir director, would find everything “appropriate.” So he asked Jessop and his wife to see the show beforehand at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. “Donny, he's always such a gentleman, he just wanted to make sure that I would be comfortable,” says Jessop. “I was blown away.”

Jessop said his long–time friend offered to do the show gratis, but it took a year of planning until Osmond could take a day off to visit USU. Backed by members of Jessop's American Festival Orchestra, the sold–out show entertained an enthusiastic audience of 2,200.

Patty Halaufia, Alumni Association executive director, was there. She says the event was a communion between the AFC Orchestra, the audience and Donny. “Donny related to the audience and the audience responded,” she says. The best part, she says, half–smiling, was “when Donny threw the sweaty rag to the ladies.”

Jessop says he particularly liked Osmond's orchestration of a Stevie Wonder song medley, as well as a surprise addition, “Whenever You're in Trouble,” a song Osmond wrote for his 18–year–old son.

Members of the community helped bring the show together. An anonymous donor provided catering for an earlier $250 per plate “Dinner with Donny,” and Logan developers Wasatch Properties offered space at the new Riverwoods Conference Center, says Jessop.

“It was 100 percent toward scholarships and development,” says Jessop. “I'm told that after expenses we will have generated about $100,000, and I intend on dividing that equally between music and theater.”

Jessop describes himself as very passionate, almost evangelical about the power of the arts and how important they are in the lives of individuals and society.

“I believe in the arts; arts are what make us human and civilize us, make us sensitive to others. Study of the arts bridges gaps and crosses boundaries and brings people together. It may just be the salvation of the whole planet because it makes people think of others,” he says.

—Brendon Butler