Minnesota Winds

PEOPLE-POWERED MUSIC
Minnesota Winds is our state’s brand-new professional concert band! This Give to the Max Day, help us raise $25,000 to power our inaugural season.

Your impact: Producing a professional concert season is a major undertaking! Our spring program alone costs more than three times today's goal. But we know that together, we can do great things. Thanks to early supporters, we’ve already raised $20,000—and today we’re asking the full Minnesota Winds community to help raise the final $5,000!

This Give to the Max Day, here’s what your gift helps make possible:

 🎵 Bringing the full band together at Orchestra Hall for the very first time

 🎵 Ensuring 25%+ of our audience is band students through discounted student tickets

 🎵 Building a new, people-powered cultural institution celebrating the concert band art form

Help us reach this milestone and be part of history in the making for band in Minnesota!

ABOUT MINNESOTA WINDS
We're on a mission to embrace the dynamic energy and inclusive culture of school band and bring it to the professional level. We know band is essential. Every year, it's how tens of thousands of students across Minnesota experience the power of music. Yet, professional concert bands are rare. Our community is changing that!

Started by two former band students, the organization launched last summer with preview concerts presented in partnership with YourClassical MPR and MacPhail Center for Music. Since then, hundreds of individuals and families have given donations of all sizes to this new organization. Because of this support, Minnesota Winds kicked off the first season of professional band in our community this October. Together, we are celebrating band music, supporting our musicians, and creating experiences that inspire and connect us all. Your generosity fuels every rehearsal, every concert, every note we play. It reminds us that music is not just something we experience—it’s something we create, together. 

Thank you for striking up the band by including Minnesota Winds in your giving this Give to the Max Day!

A LOOK INSIDE THE FIRST SEASON
The first season of professional band in our state kicked off in October with a sold-out chamber winds performance at Westminster Hall in Minneapolis which we then took on the road to Austin, Minnesota. Audience members were asked to share one word to describe the concert—and the reviews are in!

"I'm pretty sure my daughter and I said WOW at the end of each piece."

"Thank you so much for all the work putting this group together. As a lifelong community band performer it was just very cool and exciting to be part of the inaugural concert."

"Five star performance that had me hooked from the first few notes!"

"It was amazing, and as a band student it inspired me to take my education in music further. I'm thrilled for the next one."

"I love symphonic band music . . . to hear professionals play this style of music was breathtaking."

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We make great music and we have a lot of fun doing it—check out some of our favorite photos of musicians, student volunteers, and audience members from the past year below!