This year’s Jazz Fest drew more than 450 middle school and high school students and 22 groups from around Alaska for performances and intensive workshops with UAF music faculty members and guest artists.

This year’s performances included a military appreciation concert featuring the U.S. Army Blues Band and a performance of UAF Jazz Bands with Kathleen Butler-Hopkins and soloists from the U.S. Army Blues Band as well as the festival’s honors ensembles and directors’ big band.

The 2011 Jazz Fest was dedicated to the memory of Bill Stroecker, an active member of the Fairbanks jazz community, who died in late 2010.