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Southeast Alaska is a land of strong communities that manage to stay connected despite their extreme isolation. This weekend, over 650 high school music students from Craig, Haines, Hoonah, Juneau, Ketchikan, Klawock, Metlakatla, Petersburg, Sitka and Wrangell will close the distance between their hometowns by attending the annual Southeast Alaska Music Festival.

The festival will be held April 22-24 at Juneau-Douglas High School. Students will spend long days - beginning at 8 a.m. and often ending long after sunset - attending and participating in a series of workshops, master classes and performances. Participating groups include choirs, orchestras, jazz and concert bands, ensembles and soloists.

It's the highlight of the year not only for students but for faculty as well, said Petersburg High School music teacher Matt Lenhard.

"It's what every Southeast Alaska high school music director has in mind from the first week of school," Lenhard said. "I can't imagine springtime in Southeast Alaska without it."

Lenhard has directed Petersburg High's choirs and bands for 12 years, half of which have included trips to festivals and competitions outside of the state. Still, the Southeast festival remains a favorite event for him and his students, so much so that their curriculum for the school year is planned around it.

"What we really want to succeed at is the Southeast festival because that's with our peers," Lenhard said.

A spirit of non-competition and sharing is embedded into the fabric of the festival, Lenhard said. Students equally enjoy performing well for each other and acting as appreciative audience members as they build friendships with students from across the region.

"There's something about the rich musical sharing that's going on with people we're well acquainted with or friends in this big neighborhood we call Southeast Alaska," Lenhard said.

Music directors also benefit from connecting with directors from other communities. Because of the remoteness of Southeast Alaska, a band teacher is often the only one of their kind in their town, Lenhard said.

Sitka High School choir and band director John Depalatis called the festival a "professional development opportunity" for musical faculty.

"There is an energy about it when the kids get together and when the directors get together," Depalatis said. "When you're the only person in your community that does a certain thing, it's exciting getting to visit your peer group."

Depalatis came to Sitka High four years ago from teaching in Tacoma, Wash., for fifteen years. After teaching in such a large metropolitan area with more resources than all of Southeast Alaska's communities combined, he recognizes the challenges that musicians in Southeast Alaska face. Many communities lack instrument-specific instruction and retail outlets for music supplies, but that doesn't keep musicians from practicing their craft.

"There are things about Southeast Alaska from a music teacher's point of view that are positively utopian and (Southeast Alaska Music Festival) is one of those things," Depalatis said. "What wwe bring back is intangible."

The festival's location traditionally rotates between Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka, the latter of which hosted the 2009 event. This year, Depalatis will travel to Juneau with 118 students and about 10 chaperones, in contrast to last year when he was heavily involved in planning as host of the event.

"There's an enormous amount of logistical preparation that goes on in order to host the event," Depalatis said. "As the host, you're doing a very different set of tasks."

"It's easier to go to somebody else's house," said Ketchikan High School music director Trina Elliott. "The travel is peaceful, the kids are usually really great, then you get there and somebody else has planned everything out. It's also fun to have everyone come to your place and get to do it your way."

The work of Juneau students, teachers, staff, parents and the Band Boosters organization will make this year's festival happen. As hosts, they are responsible for coordinating workshop and performance schedules, hiring adjudicators and making sure that visiting students have a place to stay.

Lodging is provided by host families, many of whom are parents of music students. One such host in Juneau is Tim Banaszak, whose son, Nick, is actively involved in band at JDHS. Banaszak served as a chaperone for JDHS students in 2009 as they traveled to Sitka, and this year he is thrilled to experience the festival on his own turf.

"It has been really rewarding getting to know these kids," Banaszak said. "The arts venue is a real opportunity for kids to find something in themselves that they didn't know existed and showcase it in the community. I think it helps them develop as humans."

Ken Guiher has been an integral part of developing those student musicians since 1982, when he worked as a music teacher in Angoon. He has also experienced the festival as band director at JDHS for the past 15 years.

"Angoon no longer has a music program, which is very sad," Guiher said. "I hope it never happens to Juneau or any other place in Southeast. We should do everything we can to keep the music festival going and successful. It's an amazing thing when the small schools and large schools perform for each other."

This will be Guiher's last music festival as band director as he plans to retire at the end of this school year. His career has involved teaching music all over the state and leading his students to perform outside of Alaska, including one invitational performance at New York City's Carnegie Hall.

The Southeast Alaska Music Festival has attracted the attention of music directors from outside of Alaska, Guiher said.

"People from all over come and see the way we do our music festival," he said. "They want to set up theirs just like ours."

The success of the festival hinges on the connectedness of students, despite geographical limitations. Thanks to technological advancements in correspondence such as e-mail, Facebook and cellular telephones, students are able to maintain the relationships formed at the festival long after their instruments return to the cases.

Elliott has experienced the festival as both a faculty member and as a student growing up in Ketchikan.

"My perspective has changed, but not a lot has changed about the festival, which I think is a good thing," Elliott said. "I love seeing it from the other side as a teacher now."

The non-competitive spirit of the festival is a highlight for Elliott and her students. Rather than focus on "beating somebody else or winning something," students can simply enjoy and learn from each other, she said.

"It's kind of like a music retreat," Elliot said. "It's a chance for them to step up and be the musicians that they are."