Sitka Jazz Hero
Sitka High School music director Mike Kernin has been a driving force behind the Sitka Jazz Festival for more than a quarter century. Each year since 1995, with the exception of the pandemic year 2021, the festival has been drawing top professional jazz talent from around the U.S. to play concerts in the evening and, daytime, conduct clinics for student musicians.
With Kernin’s leadership the festival attracts hundreds of middle and high school-age kids from all over Alaska — and some from out-of-state — who want the chance to hear musicians at the top of their game and learn from those professionals, as well as their peers.
Kernin remembers the fest’s humble beginnings: A single concert at Centennial Hall starring vocalist Kitty Margolis, but no school group performance. He’d always hoped it would grow.
“The fest’s roots came from the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival [at the University of Idaho], which we’ve been to many times,” Mike says. “We modeled our festival on the idea that if we did ours right on the end of the Hampton one [it would be] possible to bring in people like Paquito D’Rivera” who’d already gotten as far as Moscow — about six hours away by plane. He adds that it helped that both he and Sitka Jazz Fest founder Brad Howey are alums of the University of Idaho.
“We like people who are solid, good performers and good teachers, good with kids and good with audiences,” Kernin said. A recent lineup of professionals comprised Dewayne Pate, bass guitar; Mads Tolling, violin; Kenny Washington, vocals; Dezson Claiborne, percussion; David K. Matthews, piano; Glenn Kostur, saxophone, and Darren English, trumpet, plus the U.S. Air Force Bands of the Pacific, of Japan and Hawaii.
Over the years successive directors of the Sitka Jazz Fest have built connections and relationships so that it’s become easier to recruit musicians to venture to this city spread over Baranof and Chichagof islands, accessible only by air or water, 90 miles from Juneau, 850 northwest of Seattle, in February.
“So many performers want to come to the festival,” Kernin says. “They have such a great time when they come here that they ask to come back.” As Bay Area-based vocalist Kenny Washington recalled of first coming to Sitka at the invitation of pianist and fellow Californian Bob Athayde, “I remember how nice the kids were. They were really into their week of making music and taking classes. It was fun to see young people so enthusiastic about learning about their instruments and singing.”
Kernin says he relies on help from volunteers, local businesses and the rest of the community to make the festival happen year after year. His daughter Nichel, a Sitka High graduate, stepped up as assistant director in 2015, and helped restart the festival in 2022. He is, of course, pleased.
“It is such a cool tradition, such a great way to meet people and to expose students from our island communities to world-class jazz musicians,” Kernin says. “We get kids coming from Fairbanks, all over Southeast Alaska, and even Anchorage [some 570 miles northwest by air, or 850 overland]. it’s just great. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s turned into a year-round job. I’m thinking about it all year.”
Looking for ways to enhance and advance the program, is what Jazz Heroes such as Mike Kernin do. — James Poulson
