Big festival for big bands at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Feb. 28

January 28, 2020

The annual Jazz Festival hosted by the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Music Department takes place on Friday, Feb. 28. The festival is a non-competitive, positive, learning-based experience for young jazz ensembles. This year the festival features the Inatnas Orchestra, one of the exciting, new jazz groups in the Twin Cities.

The Inatnas Orchestra is led by and features the music of Asuka Kakitani and JC Sanford. The orchestra debuted on Dec. 16, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minn. Kakitani is the recipient of many awards including the BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize and the Brooklyn Arts Fund, and was also named “Critic Poll Rising Star Arranger” by Downbeat. Sanford is a student of legendary composer Bob Brookmeyer. His debut album was awarded a coveted Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant. Kakitani and Sanford are co-founders of the Twin Cities Jazz Composers’ Workshop.

High school bands were invited to join for an event and will have the opportunity to perform for one another, and have clinics with the Anoka-Ramsey Music Department faculty as well as Kakitani and Sanford.

A concert performance Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. in the Coon Rapids Campus Performing Arts Center will feature performances by the Anoka-Ramsey Jazz Ensemble and the Inatnas Orchestra. This event is free to the public.

Anoka-Ramsey Jazz Festival
Friday, Feb. 28
6:30 pm
Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Coon Rapids Campus Performing Arts Center

For more information about the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Music Department and their public events, visit AnokaRamsey.edu/Academics/Departments-Faculty/Music/.