BANGOR – Peakes Auditorium is the place for all that jazz this Saturday.

The 900-seat venue at Bangor High School is where the concert culminating the Maine All-State Jazz Festival will be held at 2 p.m.

The event, organized by the Maine Music Educators’ Association, features 76 performers from 38 Maine schools. They have been divided into four groups: the jazz honors combo (11 musicians), honors band (19), jazz band (20) and jazz choir (24 singers and two musicians).

Each group will be the charge of a guest conductor: composer John Cooper will oversee the honors combo; Graham Breedlove, trumpet soloist for the Army Blues Band, the honors band; Trent Austin, the jazz band; and Cassandra Morgan of Belmont (Mass.) High School, the jazz choir.

The students were chosen from a few hundred who auditioned in October. George Redman, choral director at Bangor High School, explained that each had to learn a standard jazz tune, prepare a written-out solo etude and then improvise a solo over the chords of that song. This year’s selection was “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

The highest scoring instrumentalists were divided between the two honors groups. Those with better solo skills went to the combo, with the better music readers in the honors band. Some soloists are already chosen by their positions in the various groups, while others will be selected during the less than two days of rehearsal time.

These groups allow students to play alongside equally talented musicians.

“It’s a chance to play in bands that in some cases have more personnel than their own programs,” Redman said.

Students received folders of music in advance to prepare for the festival. The performers, who are staying at an area hotel, rehearsed for three hours Thursday night, and will rehearse all day today before attending a private concert by the Pat Michaud Big Band at Peakes. Dress rehearsal will be held Saturday morning, with the concert at 2 p.m.

Although certain schools have had greater representation in the past, Redman said that’s not the case this year.

“It’s fairly well-balanced,” he said. “I don’t think any school has more than four.”

Bangor High is hosting the All-State Jazz Festival for the first time in recent memory, although it has been host to district music festivals and district and state theater competitions.

The festival shifts geographically throughout the state. After Redman and his fellow music staffers, band director Scott Burditt and strings teacher Chrles Kadyk figured out how Bangor could host the event, they got permission from school administrators and submitted a proposal to the music educators in May.

They soon found out that they had been chosen. Serious planning started in September, Redman said, with crunch time the last six weeks. Such concerns as housing, meals and rehearsal and concert space had to be addressed. A total of 60 to 70 people have been involved in this process, including staff, students and music boosters, he added.

What do organizers hope that students take away from the All-State experience?

“Aside from the knowledge we hope they pick up from talented guest conductors, we hope they will be recharged and rejuvenated for the second half of the year, and take that knowledge and enthusiasm back to their own programs,” Redman said.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and a $15 limit for families. For more information, call 941-6200, Ext. 154. Dale McGarrigle can be reached at 990-8287 and dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.