30 schools take part in all-state concert Student jazz musicians perform in Caribou

CARIBOU – Seventy-eight high school jazz musicians performed in four ensembles Saturday afternoon during the Maine All-State Jazz Festival held this year at Caribou High School.

More than 300 people attended the two-hour concert Saturday afternoon at the Caribou Performing Arts Center. Four guest conductors from throughout the country led the ensembles.

The students came to Caribou from 30 Maine high schools. They practiced three hours on Thursday night and all day Friday with their four guest conductors to be ready for Saturday afternoon’s concert.

“It was a wonderful weekend for the kids, quite an educational experience for them,” Vaughn McLaughlin, music director at Caribou High School, said Sunday. “This a good opportunity for them to be playing with good conductors.”

Among the visiting conductors to work with the students was Ron Carter, “probably the best jazz educator in the country,” McLaughlin said.

Carter conducted the final performances of the afternoon Saturday with the honors band. The United Musical Instruments of Elkhart, Ind., sponsored the visit by Carter, who serves as professor of music and director of the jazz ensemble at Northern Illinois University.

The Maine All-State Jazz Combo, composed of 11 musicians, was directed by Mark LaForce, director of the Oyster River High School Jazz Programs in Durham, N.H.

The 24-voice All-State Jazz Choir was directed by Anne Peckham, associate professor in the voice department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Christopher Oberholtzer, University of Southern Maine jazz studies director, directed a 19-piece jazz band.

The 78 high school students in Caribou this weekend were selected from among 300 who auditioned last October at Old Town High School. Students had been preparing since then to perform the selections chosen by their respective guest conductors.

Saturday the students performed works by Duke Ellington, Kirby Shaw, Michael Annicchiarico, Billy Strayhorn, George Stone, and Cole Porter.