Experience Jazz is a genre-bridging music ensemble program for instrumentalists, vocalists, rappers, DJs and other aspiring musical artists. Launched in 2017 by Minnesota Jazz Education (formerly Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education), this innovative program is an incubator for middle and high school musicians to learn, play and compose new music together.

At Walker West, we believe that jazz music has the power to bring people together and inspire creativity and self-expression. We are committed to providing a supportive and inclusive environment where students can learn, grow, and thrive as musicians. Join us and discover the joy of jazz music! We offer jazz ensembles for students of […]

Inspired by the concept of community, the string ensemble of Walker West was created to perform works that reflect the cultural diversity of the string students and families in our program.  Kamoinge is a Kikuyu (Kenya) word meaning a group working together, unforced and unconstrained, to do good for the community.

A vital element of jazz education has always been the direct transfer of knowledge between generations of musicians where students could “sit-in” to directly learn the craft from their professional contemporaries when gigs were steady, occurring often nightly.  To keep this essential tradition alive, Twin Cities jazz professionals founded The Minnesota Hard Bop Collective (aka […]

The Roof Access band is a collection of five young musicians in high school and college. They unanimously won 1st place at the 2023 Eau Claire Jazz Festival and have just released their debut album “Roof Access.” This album features entirely originals written by members of the group Ataa-Adjetey Mensah, Will Aldrich, Callum Schultz, and Rafael […]