Feature Copy: Music festivals
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Mention Alaska to most anyone, and visions of majestic mountains, glaciers tumbling into the sea, and waves of caribou rippling over treeless tundra spring instantly to mind. While all of these visions are certainly valid, and make up a large portion of most vacation trips, there are other dimensions to the state that are largely unexplored by visitors. Every year, music festivals enliven cities and towns all over the state, much to the delight of local music lovers and visitors alike. These melodious events take place in all regions of Alaska, and opportunities for participation are available throughout the year.
SOUTHEAST:
In May, the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival is a 10-day event featuring performances by jazz and classical musicians and blues artists. They also hold dances, free concerts, workshops for young musicians and a Blues Cruise. Noteworthy past performers have included artists as talented and world-renowned as Mose Allison, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
The Alaska Folk Festival is held in Juneau every year featuring bluegrass artists. The 25th anniversary in 1999 showcased folk musicians from Southeast Alaska and the Yukon Territory. The festival is held over two weekends in April.
Skagway holds a Mini Folk Fest in the spring, usually on the weekend after the Alaska Folk Fest in Juneau. It's an invitational festival, featuring artists from Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. The events are held in Skagway on Friday and Whitehorse on Saturday, and the performances generally run from 7:00-10:30 P.M. each night.
The Bald Eagle Music Festival is held every year in Haines in conjunction with the Southeast Alaska State Fair in August. Headline artists share their original music in evening performances.
Since 1972, the Sitka Summer Music Festival has provided a venue for classical musicians to perform in this scenic southeast Alaska community. In the first years of the endeavor, contributions were solicited to buy one-way airline tickets for the performers to get them to Sitka, and the admission fees to the concerts funded their return flights. Today the Sitka Festival attracts musicians from around the country and the world for this series of chamber music concerts.
The 2000 Sitka Festival begins on June 2 and lasts three weeks with concerts on Tuesday and Friday evenings and one Saturday evening performance, on June 17. Special events are scheduled throughout the festival. The festival includes free concerts and a variety of fundraisers, in addition to cruises, dessert parties, crab feeds, and much more serve to help underwrite the costs of this outstanding musical event.
In addition to the Sitka venue, the organizers hold the Alaska Airlines Autumn and Winter Classics series of eight chamber music concerts at Alaska Pacific University's Grant Hall Auditorium in Anchorage. The Autumn series takes place in September, the Winter series in February. During the winter series, the artists tour the state performing in smaller communities, including Sitka, Homer, Nome and Kenai.
SOUTHCENTRAL:
The University of Alaska, Anchorage sponsors Jazz Week in March. For the last 15 years, the UAA music department has sponsored this event, bringing jazz musicians up from the Lower 48 to entertain and to hold clinics, passing along their musical expertise to young and aspiring artists. Visiting high school band members attend the concerts and clinics along with UAA students, and the event has recently expanded its repertoire to include vocal groups.
The Anchorage Folk Festival is held in January at various times at University of Alaska Anchorage's Williamson Auditorium. The annual Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival is a three-day outdoor event in August which includes craft and food booths. Many people camp out during the entire festival.
INTERIOR REGION:
The Athabascan Old Time Fiddling Festival is held in Fairbanks every year in November, as close to Veteran's Day as possible. It's a weekend festival featuring 70-80 Native musicians from Alaska and Canada. Reels, jigs, two-steps and waltzes are performed in the Upriver and Downriver styles. The Upriver fiddling style, (the river being the Yukon) was largely influenced by the fiddlers of the Orkney Islands and French Canadians, while the Downriver fiddlers derived their style from the Gold Rushers of 1898. And if your idea of attending a musical performance is to sit calmly and merely observe the artists, this festival is not for you-it's a very participatory event, and everyone joins in, dancing into the wee hours of the morning.
The Fairbanks Folk Fest stages a pair of annual events, the Winter and Summer Music Fests. They promote the interests of the folk musicians, dancers, artists and story tellers of Interior Alaska. These free events take place on the campus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The winter festival is held in February, the summer fest on the weekend closest to the summer solstice.
The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival has grown from a small jazz festival for adults to a major University of Alaska Fairbanks-affiliated annual event attracting students worldwide. Spread over two weeks in late July and early August, the festival offers music, dance, theater, opera, ice-skating, and visual-arts instruction. Dozens of noted guest artists attend to perform and to present workshops.
KODIAK:
The Kodiak Bear Country Music Festival-a July three-day musical extravaganza featuring an exceptional variety of music genres, including but not limited to bluegrass, country, folk, rock, Russian, Mexican, Celtic and Alaskan music. In its fifth year in 1999, the festival, a fundraiser for the Kodiak Lions Club, features musicians from the Lower 48 and Alaska, performing on three stages at the state fairgrounds.
Music festivals are an important and vibrant part of Alaska's cultural scene. Every year participation and interest in these events increases, and visitors are welcome to add to the rich and diverse melange of talent fostered by these performances.
Contact information for festivals listed above:
Sitka Music Festival Phone: 907-747-6774
www.sitkamusicfestival.org
E-mail:
director@sitkamusicfestival.org
Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival P.O. Box 80845 Fairbanks 99708
Phone: 907-474-8869 Fax: 907/479-4329
Skagway Mini Folk Fest 907-983-2276
Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival
P.O. Box 35043 Juneau 99801
907-463-3378
www.juneau.com/music
Fairbanks Folk Fest 907-479-8863
Athabascan Old Time Fiddling Festival 907-452-1825
Jazz Week, Anchorage 907-786-1684
Alaska Folk Festival, Juneau 907-364-2658
Bald Eagle Music Festival, Haines 907-766-2476
For Alaska Visitor Information write to:
Dept. 712, P.O. Box 196710, Anchorage AK 99519-6710,
call (800) 862-5275 or visit the web site:
http://apr.travelalaska.com.
Tom Reale is a travel and outdoors writer and guidebook author who lives and works in Anchorage.
Alaska Travel
Industry Association
2600 Cordova St. Ste. 201
Anchorage, AK 99503-2745
P. (800) 327-9372
F. (800) 276-1042
E. ATIAmedia@gci.net