The concert will feature high school jazz bands from Iron Mountain and Kingsford, as well as a student-led jazz combo from Kingsford High School.

The concert is hosted by Craig Recla, Iron Mountain Schools director of bands. Kingsford jazz students are directed by Marc Rose.

Admission to the concert is free, but donations will be accepted.

Proceeds will go towards the Ron Caviani Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides a college scholarship to a local jazz student musician each year.

Ron Caviani

Ron Caviani was an outstanding musician and educator who spent many years performing and teaching in the community. He volunteered his time to work with the high school bands in the area.

The jazz bands would not be where they are today without his assistance, according to Recla.

Caviani was a native of Iron Mountain and a major figure in jazz education as well as a gift composer. After teaching at Northern Michigan University and the University of the Pacific in California, he retired in the mid-1990s to Iron Mountain.

He then began visiting the area schools to share his knowledge of jazz to programs in Iron Mountain, Kingsford and Norway.

The first concert was held in November 2003 at IMHS and ended with Caviani playing a medley of jazz favorites — his last time at the piano. He passed away just two months later, in January 2004.

Since that first concert, 17 scholarships have been awarded to jazz musicians from schools whose jazz programs Caviani was very active in working with.

“This year’s program will seek to raise funds to not only fund the 2024 Caviani Scholarship, but also to grow the scholarship fund so we can increase the award in the future as college expenses climb,” organizers noted.

A free will offering will be taken to fund the scholarships at the concert. Donation checks can be made out to the Dickinson Area Community Foundation — DACF — memo “Ron Caviani Jazz Scholarship.”