The follwoing programs are funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to produce radio programming and concerts to support the arts. 

Big Band Scene Road Show “Big Band Scene Road Show” produced three jazz educational outreach concerts for the Big Band Scene show. The program was designed to educate and inspire student musicians by engaging them with top professional and college bands. The show also presented new big band compositions and arrangements by local writers.

Butch Thompson’s Jazz Originals “Butch Thompson’s Road Show” is a program designed to educate listeners about the origins of jazz with vintage jazz recordings, live piano solos and demonstrations, and narrative from one of the country’s original jazz experts – Minnesota’s own Butch Thompson. The show also aims to educate listeners about the origins of jazz through live solo concerts presented by Butch Thompson at various venues. Each concert is recorded for broadcast as part of the Jazz Original series.

What’s Real “What’s Real” is a program designed to give students an on-air voice. Students will be encouraged to create audio pieces about topics relevant to them. Students will learn what news is, the structure of a news piece, and the difference between news and editorials. Students will record and produce stories for broadcast and the web.

Teacher Feature “Teacher Feature” promotes public education by interviewing Minneapolis Public School teachers about their accomplishments with live, in-studio interviews.

Minnesota Music Moment Minnesota Music Moment highlights the careers of Minnesota jazz musicians in 3 ½ minute vignettes aired three times per week on KBEM FM and hosted by Maryann Sullivan. More info here.

Jazz from J to Z The “Jazz from J to Z” concert series includes six of the annual concerts presented by the Twin Cities Jazz Society promoting Minnesota jazz talent in large and small group settings. Concerts were recorded for broadcast and web cast.

MN Voices: Certain Standards MN Voices will create an awareness and contextual understanding of the legendary “Great American Songbook” repertoire, by using the uniquely talented pool of the Twin Cities’ Jazz singing community to perform these songs, accompanied by Minnesota musicians. The program is hosted by Arne Fogel. More infohere.

Viva City Viva City will highlight Middle and High School band students from Minneapolis Public Schools performing in a concert at Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota. The concert will be recorded and broadcast on KBEM . On –air segments highlighting individual bands and students would be produced and aired on KBEM prior to the concert. Viva City will help increase student, parent and community engagement in music, music education, and performance while creating exposure for KBEM. More infohere.

Minneapolis Jazz at South High School The “Jazz at South High” will feature music recorded by the South High Jazz program and document classroom activities and events. The show will focus primarily on original traditional jazz compositions by students. The secondary focus will be on current mainstream jazz compositions to be performed by the jazz band. The program will also feature a component where students can present the recordings of jazz artists they enjoy. More info here.

Minnepolis Jazz At Southwest After the successful run of 14 episodes of Jazz At South High we decided to expand the show to Southwest! Morgan Wilcock and Peter Centner two students from Southwest High School host the new show. Featuring jazz and funk student band combos from Southwest it’s a fun night of student music and conversation.

Join KBEM every Tuesday at night 7:00 PM starting February 7th for Jazz At Southwest High School and look for archived shows and playlist to be posted online after each broadcast. Brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Legacy Amendment. More information here.

Studio One KBEM’s “Studio One” will be designed as an intimate performance space where Minnesota jazz artists can record and/or perform ‘live’ on-air.. Video and audio recordings of Minnesota artists done at Studio One will create an expanded awareness of the Minnesota jazz scene through exclusive video content available online and on the air at KBEM.