The cofounder of the hugely popular Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Steve Heckler, will retire in 2023 after its 25th presentation. He will be replaced as executive director by Dayna Martinez, vice president of programming and education at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts.
Cofounder Steve Heckler will exit the popular Twin Cities Jazz Festival in 2023
The Ordway's Dayna Martinez will take over as executive director of the multi-day, multi-stage, free music event.
October 20, 2022 at 9:07PM
"It's time," Heckler said Thursday. "The board [members] are over 70. What's the future going to be? I just got my Medicare card last month."
Martinez will work part-time with the Ordway and part time with the TC Jazz Festival. She will officially become executive director in October 2023.
Heckler said the extended transition will give Martinez opportunity to learn the inner workings of the multi-day, multi-stage free festival in downtown St. Paul.
TC Jazz Fest draws more than 30,000 people to see 70-some musical acts on two-dozen stages over three days. The musicians are paid but the festival is free, thanks to sponsors and grants.
Heckler, who has worked full time for TC Jazz Festival since 2013, will retire after next June's event.
At the Ordway, Martinez has curated the music and dance programs, overseen education and community engagement teams, and served as director of the Flint Hills Family Festival. Prior to joining the Ordway, she worked with a music management firm in New York.
"She knows the complexity required to produce these things and raise money, the changes happening in the city. She has all that," Heckler said. "It's just a question of getting connected to how to put it all together and how the jazz community works. I'm really confident."
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