Twin Cities Tango Collective 2025-2026

HELP US CULTIVATE LIVE TANGO MUSIC IN MINNEAPOLIS / ST PAUL! 

Overview

Twin Cities Tango Collective is creating a thriving culture of tango musicians in the Twin Cities through community ensembles, live performances, and classes dedicated to Argentine tango music. Ensembles play custom arrangements created specifically for our program, perform for seated audiences, invite guest artists / mentors, and organize milongas (social dances) to collaborate with the local tango dance community. 

TCTC is possible almost exclusively through grassroots support and small donations. Donations are tax deductible, and are applied directly to three goals: 1) to help offset the increasing cost of rehearsal and performance venues, 2) create new scores for classic tangos we all know and love, giving our musicians a growing and permanent library, and 3) supporting the production cost for Minnesota Tango Music Festival.

In this critical fifth year of the program, we are expanding to become a lasting institution. Donations of any amount make a real impact. Thank you for your consideration! 

Ensemble Development

Twin Cities Tango Collective hosts Community Tango Ensemble: an inclusive and welcoming group that meets once a week. This ensemble is welcomes all musicians from any background, any age, any level, and does not require previous experience. This inclusive approach brings many new musicians (over 100 in the last four years), and contributes to lasting community. The group has a small tuition that collectively funds a rehearsal space, and free scholarships are given on need basis. Importantly, this program can act as a connecting space to the dance community: new musicians become exposed to the tango dance community, and tango dancers become exposed to the music side.

Twin Cities Tango Collective also hosts Northwoods Tango Ensemble: an audition-based orquesta tipica that meets once a week. Northwoods is dedicated to playing danceable tango music from the golden era. We study twice as much music, focusing on specific orchestras to deepen understanding of style and technique. Northwoods is a limited-seat ensemble that moves quickly, attracting professional musicians, music students, and tango aficionados into a central ensemble for networking and study. The result is more skilled players, more bands in for our dance community, and strong positive connections throughout. Goodwill, solidarity, and local action.

Northwoods Tango Ensemble: 2025

Minnesota Tango Music Festival

Twin Cities Tango Collective hosts a May weekend-long tango music festival at the end of our year (Sep-May). This festival provides all tango ensembles in the Twin Cities with a place to showcase their work in concerts, connect with the larger community, and perform for large-scale dance events. The festival is an inspirational motivation for our ensembles, an encouraging outreach for new musicians, and an engaging weekend of milongas for our local dance community and those that travel from out of town.

See photos and video from last year's festival here.

This festival is a grassroots production, funded entirely through ticket sales and donations. Our organization is deeply grateful for any donation of any size, each goes a long way towards our goals of rooting tango music into the fabric of our cities. The funds are used to cover costs of venues, equipment, guest artists, musicians, score production, live sound, and production, which in turn supports the outreach and events necessary for attracting/cultivating new musicians, bands, dancers, and teachers at the local level. Twin Cities Tango Collective is fiscally-sponsored by Springboard For The Arts, and all donations are tax-deductible. If you appreciate what we are building and have the means to contribute, please consider making one!

Please visit our website to learn more about what we are doing:

https://www.twincitiestango.com/

Thank you for your consideration and support! 

Twin Cities Tango Collective is fiscally sponsored project of Springboard for the Arts. To give directly to Springboard: https://givemn.org/organization/Springboard-For-The-Arts