Our Mission
To cultivate the love of jazz.
Our Vision
To deliver a relevant, meaningful, and vibrant jazz experience that is attractive to a wide variety of audiences.
Performance
JazzMN, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, was formed twenty years ago by Dr. Douglas Snapp with the mission to “Promote, Preserve and Perpetuate America’s Indigenous Art Music, Jazz”. Since its inception, the JazzMN Orchestra has presented more than 70 concerts in its main series with dozens of additional performances at jazz and art festivals around the Twin Cities. The music performed by the JazzMN Orchestra ranges from the very beginnings of jazz through contemporary and commissioned works by today’s composers. With the evolution of jazz impacting music across the world and jazz elements being found in many genres of music, JazzMN concerts have included works in Swing, Fusion, R&B, Latin, Rock, and even Rap genres. This effort to program works from Classic to Contemporary ties with JazzMN’s efforts to present jazz as an American art form that crosses age and race barriers. Now in its 21st season, the JazzMN Orchestra has featured international jazz artists such as Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Arturo Sandoval, Gordon Goodwin, Phil Woods, Nicholas Payton and Paquito D’Rivera. A complete listing of all of JazzMN’s main series concerts can be found here.
Education
JazzMN’s educational outreach program allows local school students the opportunity to learn from – and then play alongside – JazzMN musicians in concert. JazzMN musicians have worked with numerous school jazz ensembles, and have presented concerts that are often students’ first exposure to a professional jazz orchestra.