All State Jazz Festival set in Augusta

The fifth annual All State Jazz Festival will be held Jan. 7-9 at the University of Maine at Augusta. The festival features an 18-piece honors band, an 18-piece jazz band, a six-piece jazz combo, and a 16-voice jazz chorus. There are 29 different high school music departments represented. The festival is cosponsored by the jazz faculties of the University of Maine music departments, the Maine Music Educator Association, and the Maine Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators.

This festival is designed to showcase Maine’s outstanding high-school musicians. The three days of activities include five rehearsals with the guest conductors, a banquet for students only that features the guest conductors as speakers, a conductors’ concert in which each of the four conductors performs for the banquet audience, a clinic series that covers the four main instrumental groupings used in jazz writing, and the final concert by each group. The student concert itself is professional video taped and audio taped.

The three-day festival will be completed with a final concert by all of the groups. The concert is at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, in the Jewett Hall Auditorium at UMA. There will be open seating, and the tickets are $5 each.