Kinser Jazz Festival

Dr. Thomas Kinser started the festival at Casper College in 1967 with three ensembles, arguing that jazz belonged in the standard music curriculum in Wyoming; it was later renamed in his honor. It now hosts more than 50 vocal and instrumental ensembles from junior high, high school and college programs across Wyoming and the wider Rocky Mountain region, and it draws participants and audiences from Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah and Nebraska as well.

Student groups perform for adjudicators in a non-competitive setting and take clinics with the visiting artists, and the festival pairs that with public evening concerts. Its guest list over the decades has included Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter and the Count Basie Orchestra; recent editions have brought in acts such as the Grammy-winning vocal quartet säje. Being the only sustained jazz festival in Wyoming, it functions as the state's jazz education backbone rather than as a tourist event.