Cedar Cultural Center

The Cedar, a 501c3 organization, has never wavered from its original vision of building a world where all communities and ages can connect over high-quality, original, global music. Throughout 2022, we presented more than 100 artists and bands, originating from more than thirty countries. These performers, as well as local and national artists, choose to play The Cedar because of our enthusiastic audiences, our near-perfect acoustics, and our highly-danceable floor. Our programming included the return of our annual Global Roots Festival, a three-day music festival featuring musicians from Ethiopia, Estonia, Afghanistan, India and Kenya. More than 500 community members - including many students - participated in the free festival. 2022 also saw the continuation of our annual Cedar Commissions, a program that commissions six early-career/ emerging Minnesotan composers and musicians to create and perform new music. This program is made possible by a generous grant from the Jerome Foundation. To date, more than sixty Minnesota-based artists of diverse styles and backgrounds have advanced their careers through this opportunity. Finally, we deepened partnerships with community and cultural organizations, working together to build new audiences for our global performances. Examples of 2022 partnerships include Minnesota Orchestra, Summer Cypher, Alliance Francaise, Theater Mu, The Ukranian American Community Center, NACDI and the Walker Art Center.