From the moment that Jim Horowitz thought of creating a jazz festival in Aspen. Colo., the pianist-turned-jazz entrepreneur knew he wanted the event to resonate beyond the performances on stage. "I was looking to do something at the highest level." he said. "This meant investing resources back into the community."

Since its inception in 1991, Jazz Aspen Snowmass has done just that, supporting a number of innovative educational programs. The most recent of these is the festival's JAS Room in the new Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale, a town down valley from Aspen and that's much less affluent than its famous neighbor. The room, at a high school in which 43 percent of the students are Hispanic, is accessible to all students in the area. Various musical resources (from music charts and software to DVDs) are brought together in a dedicated space that provides a gathering place for students interested in the music with the intention of building a sense of community.

The JAS Room adds to other educational initiatives that the festival developed, including a professional musician residency in the schools and a summer camp for middle and high school bands. That commitment to education also extends to California, where Horowitz and company began producing the Sonoma Jazz Festival in 2005.

The sister festival in Sonoma, Calif., established a program where every third-grade student in the school district experiences an eight-week drumming program taught by percussionist Kim Atkinson. It also provides instruments for the schools and scholarships for students.

Horowitz said that Jazz Aspen Snowmass had no model in mind for these activities, only "our own sense of doing things to fill in the gaps in a society increasingly devoid of music education in the public schools. Given the magnitude of the gaps that exist, there's a lot that can be done to further link jazz festivals to the communities in which they take place.

"In recent years." he continued, "more people come up to me to say that what we are doing in the schools is great. That's heartwarming and surprising."

Over the years, Jazz Aspen Snowmass has developed educational programs in a number of different ways. Starting in 1996, the festival created a program in association with the Thelonious Monk Institute to bring talented young players to study and play at JAS Academy, a high-level workshop and camp. That list includes now well-known musicians such as pianist Jason Moran, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, drummer Ali Jackson, bassist Vicente Archer, and saxophonists John Ellis and Eli Degibri. Two years ago, that event, with bassist Christian McBride as its artistic director, switched to bringing in groups representing various musical styles rather than individuals.

Horowitz feels good about what the festival has accomplished in terms of education and community outreach, but notes that he takes nothing for granted. After all, there's no sure formula that works to preserve the music and to insure that it has a future. When it comes to that future, Horowitz said he "just hopes to continue to muster the resources needed to keep things going."

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