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Eau Claire’s music venues have celebrated the community’s many cultural activities, local performers, and festivals throughout the development of downtown Eau Claire. One popular and established musical event in the area is the Eau Claire Jazz Festival, which began as the UW-Eau Claire Jazz Festival under the direction of Joe Casey in 1967. The festival has been celebrating jazz music with the jazz studies students of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the local community ever since.

This student-run music festival brings bands and musicians from around the country to perform in one of the most successful student jazz festivals in the world.  The Eau Claire Jazz Festival provides a bridge between music students at the university, local high school students, and music-lovers in the Chippewa Valley, while their reputation as a prominent jazz festival brings in bands from far and wide.

Under the current direction of Dr. Robert Baca, Professor of Music-Trumpet and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, this festival has blossomed into a local source of cultural expression.  A prolific professional musician, Dr. Baca has taught in Eau Claire since 1986 while also performing as a contract musician in the Twin Cities and has even toured with artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.  His networks within the local and national music industry helped shape what is now one of the most successful undergraduate Jazz Studies programs and festivals in the nation.

The Jazz Festival consists of local and regional bands that perform over the course of a weekend in university and community buildings.  Some of the festival’s activities include workshops, masterclasses, and performances in Eau Claire’s Downtown area and on the campus of UW-Eau Claire.  Downtown local businesses transform into concert venues where listeners enjoy various jazz ensembles and gather to share in the rich cultural experiences of Eau Claire’s music scene.  The festival concludes with a final performance by the UW-Eau Claire Jazz I Band and that year’s headlining performer in a last celebration of the annual recognition of jazz in the Chippewa Valley.

The history of the Eau Claire Jazz Fest includes generations of local jazz students and exemplifies the success of one of the area's longest musical traditions in the annual exhibition of music.  Dr. Baca’s expertise and the commitment of countless university students help foster the relationship between the university and the community in Eau Claire while promoting the history and culture of the area with musicians from around the country.

Eau Claire Jazz . Accessed July 31st 2020. https://www.eauclairejazz.com/.

Bob Baca, “Bob Baca Oral History,” Sounds of Eau Claire, accessed July 31, 2020, https://soundsofeauclaire.omeka.net/items/show/545.

The 2021 Eau Claire Jazz Festival, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Accessed July 31st 2020. https://www.uwec.edu/academics/college-arts-sciences/departments-programs/music-theatre-arts/academic-offerings/ensembles/jazz-studies/jazz-festival/.

Mennecke, Rebecca. Eau Claire Keys up for 52nd Annual Jazz Festival, VolumeOne. April 17th 2019. Accessed July 31st 2020. https://volumeone.org/articles/2019/04/17/13345-eau-claire-keys-up-for-52nd-annual-jazz-festival.