If you are wondering about the future of jazz, look no farther than the Dakota Combo, an all-star high school ensemble directed by Adam Linz. On May 5, the Combo performs in the Twin Cities Jazz Society’s Young Artists Series at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul (7 pm); the following week on May 12, they perform on the final Jazz Thursdays concert at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis (8 pm). 

Now in its fifth year, the Dakota Combo is a program of the MacPhail Center for Music in partnership with the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education, initiated by MacPhail’s former jazz coordinator, Kelly Rossum. Selected each September through open auditions, students rehearse and perform throughout the school year, including a weekend of clinics and performance with a guest artist. The Dakota Combo has performed at the Dakota Jazz Club, Honey Lounge, Minnesota Music Educators Convention, MacPhail’s Antonello Hall, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, DakotaFest and Sommerfest. Each year students tour area schools. Guest artists have included Bobby Watson, Delfeayo Marsalis, Irvin Mayfield, Tia Fuller and Johnathan Blake. Graduates of the first four seasons have gone on to such prestigious college programs as the Brubeck Institute, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, The Julliard School, Lawrence Conservatory and more.