The Turner Center Jazz Orchestra  
– The resident professional band of the Turner Jazz Center

One of the best rooms in the world
You may have heard a Big Band in a bar. You may have heard one in a concert hall.  But you’ve NEVER experienced the Big Band sound in a room that was specially architecturally designed to showcase Big Band music. The Turner Jazz Center on the campus of Drake University is just such a place, and you have to hear it to believe it. Never too loud and never too soft, the Turner Center always sounds juuuust right.

We’re serious about our craft
We’re cutting no corners. We put the music first and egos last. Turner Center Jazz Orchestra puts together a great show every time, rehearsing, getting it just right and only then do we open the doors and invite you in. Our goal is audience enjoyment first!

Don’t try this at home
Turner Center Jazz Orchestra, an Iowa non-profit public benefit corporation led by Artistic Director Andy Classen, is made up of some of the best professional jazz musicians in Des Moines including many Drake University music faculty and graduates.

Is this unique, or something?
Yep! Our home is the brand new Patty and Fred Turner Jazz Center at Drake. This amazing state-of-the-art facility was made possible by a 1.5 million dollar grant by former McDonald's Corporation CEO Fred Turner in memory of his wife Patty, who met one another while students at Drake and shared a passion for jazz.

Keep your eyes open for future Turner Center events and visit us at this great home for live jazz in Des Moines. Beautiful acoustics and stylish design make this the perfect place to hear how jazz was meant to sound.

Make a tax-deductible contribution:

Turner Center Jazz Orchestra is dedicated to preserving American Big Band jazz and making high-caliber performances available to Central Iowans. When we first began and Paul and I voiced our belief that we could do both of those things AND  farily compensate the musicians who dedicate so many hours to rehearsing and performing, many openly scoffed. 

Thanks to you, we proved them wrong.

It’s always a high-wire act, though; we're always sweating it.

If you make tax-deductible donations this time of year, consider TCJO. Your contribution will help us:

Add new music to our library
Music is copyrighted, so we have to buy the charts the band plays. We hope to be able to purchase harder-to-acquire, more expensive scores that we haven't been able to afford.

Have the means to bring in nationally-acclaimed performers
This coming holiday concert is a perfect example. Paul Marinaro performs in venues world-wide, making it a very expensive concert to bring to you,

Provide greater access to performances
We are currently raisng money to put on a revival of Jazz in the Fight for Civil Rights to be performed Juneteenth at a reduced ticket price so as to make it as accessible as possible.

Thank you in advance for thinking of us!

Central Iowa Jazz Association, a 501 (c)(3) not for profit organization, has not provided any goods or services, in whole or in part, to you in consideration for this voluntary cash contribution. If you wish to claim the tax deductibility of this gift in the U.S., please retain an acknowledgment letter for your files, available upon request.  Central Iowa Jazz Association’s EIN number is 83-2575336

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