What is The Jazz Exchange? The Jazz Exchange is a vibrant arts community and jazz education nonprofit dedicated to building communities through music and creating meaningful opportunities for young musicians to learn, perform, connect, and grow. Founded by El Paso natives and professional musicians Candice Reyes-Mireles, a jazz vocalist, and Abel Mireles, a jazz saxophonist and educator, The Jazz Exchange provides accessible music education, mentorship, scholarships, performance opportunities, and community experiences through programs such as the Jazz Academy, Summer Workshop, El Paso Jazz Festival, Jazz Around Town Music Series, and cross-border initiatives. We believe jazz is more than music—it is a language of connection, creativity, collaboration, and cultural exchange. Through jazz, we bring together students, professional musicians, educators, families, and communities across El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and Las Cruces.

What is The Jazz Exchange’s Vision? The vision of The Jazz Exchange is to build a strong, connected, and sustainable music community where young musicians have the resources, mentorship, and opportunities they need to discover their potential and pursue their goals—whether in music or beyond. We strive to create a pathway that extends beyond the traditional classroom: from student to performer, from performer to mentor, and ultimately from participant to contributor within our music community. By connecting young musicians with professional artists, educators, and industry leaders, we give students opportunities to develop not only as musicians, but as confident, creative, collaborative, and engaged individuals.

Our goal is to create a lasting impact that continues beyond high school—providing students with the networks, experiences, and skills to pursue higher education, professional opportunities, sustainable careers in music, and meaningful lives as artists and community leaders.

What Does The Jazz Exchange Do?

The Jazz Exchange creates opportunities for young musicians to learn, perform, connect, and grow while strengthening the music and arts community across El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and the greater border region. Our programs are designed not only to develop musicianship, but also to build confidence, leadership, discipline, creativity, collaboration, and a lifelong connection to the arts.

Jazz Academy

Our year-round after-school Jazz Academy provides music education for students ages 11–18 through combos, ensembles, and youth big band programming. Students develop instrumental skills, improvisation, music theory, listening, performance experience, and the ability to collaborate with other musicians in a supportive environment.

The Academy also creates opportunities for students to learn directly from professional musicians and educators while building relationships with peers who share their passion for music. Scholarships and financial assistance help ensure that participation is not limited by a family’s ability to pay.We are especially committed to encouraging and empowering young women in jazz, helping create greater representation, confidence, and opportunity in a field that has historically been male-dominated.

Summer Workshop

Our intensive two-week Summer Workshop brings together young musicians from El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and surrounding communities for immersive music education, rehearsals, masterclasses, performances, and mentorship.

Students work with our local teaching artists alongside guest faculty and professional musicians from outside the region, giving them access to perspectives, experiences, and musical networks they may not otherwise encounter. The program challenges students artistically while creating a community where they can build friendships, confidence, and a deeper understanding of what is possible through music.

Donor support helps provide scholarships, faculty, facilities, equipment, and program resources, ensuring students can participate regardless of their financial circumstances.

Teaching Assistant & Emerging Educator Program

The Jazz Exchange is committed to creating a pathway not only for young musicians, but also for the next generation of music educators and teaching artists.

Our Teaching Assistant Program provides college-level music majors, emerging musicians, and individuals with significant music experience the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with students in a real classroom and ensemble environment. Teaching Assistants work alongside experienced TJE faculty, assisting with rehearsals, sectionals, instruction, student engagement, and program activities.

Through mentorship and practical experience, TAs develop valuable skills in teaching, communication, leadership, classroom management, and music education while gaining insight into what it means to be a professional teaching artist.This creates a meaningful cycle within our organization: students become musicians, musicians become mentors, and mentors help shape the next generation.

El Paso Jazz Festival

The Jazz Exchange helped bring a jazz festival back to El Paso after a 15-year absence, creating a major community celebration centered around music, education, and cultural connection.

The festival brings together student musicians, local artists, professional guest artists, and audiences from throughout the region. Beyond the performances, the festival creates opportunities for students to share the stage with professional musicians, learn from visiting artists, and experience the excitement of being part of a larger music community.Donor support helps make this possible by contributing toward artist fees, production, equipment, venues, marketing, student opportunities, and community programming.

Jazz Around Town Music Series

Jazz Around Town brings live jazz into locally owned venues and community spaces throughout the region, creating consistent opportunities for audiences to experience live music while providing meaningful performance opportunities for local musicians.Through partnerships with venues such as The Garrison and Mountain Star Brewing Co., we create welcoming spaces where families, music lovers, students, and professional musicians can come together. Our programming also provides young musicians with opportunities to listen, learn from working professionals, participate in jam sessions, and become part of the local music community.Supporting Jazz Around Town helps sustain live music, support local artists, and make jazz more accessible to the broader community.

Jazz Beyond Fronteras

Music has the power to cross borders, and Jazz Beyond Fronteras reflects our belief that our region is stronger when our communities connect.

Through educational exchanges, performances, and collaborations between musicians and students from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, the program creates opportunities for young people to experience different perspectives, cultures, and musical traditions while building relationships across the border.

These experiences help students understand that music can be a bridge between communities and a powerful tool for cultural exchange, collaboration, and understanding.

Why Support Jazz?

Jazz is a distinctly American art form that has grown into a global language of creativity, collaboration, and cultural exchange. Born from the contributions and experiences of diverse communities, jazz has continually evolved by bringing different musical traditions, cultures, and generations together.Jazz teaches us to listen—to one another, to respond, to collaborate, and to create something together. Improvisation teaches adaptability and confidence; ensemble playing teaches teamwork and accountability; and performing teaches courage and communication. When you support jazz education, you are not simply supporting a genre of music. You are investing in young people, local artists, education, creativity, cultural connection, and the future of our community.

Your support helps ensure that young musicians have access to mentors, instruments, education, performance opportunities, and a community where they can belong and grow. It also helps preserve and advance a musical tradition that continues to connect people across generations, cultures, and borders.

Where Does Your Donation Go?

Your donation to The Jazz Exchange helps create opportunities that extend far beyond the classroom. Your support can help provide:

Student Scholarships – Helping remove financial barriers so more young musicians can participate in our programs.

Music Education – Supporting qualified teaching artists, workshops, masterclasses, ensembles, music materials, and educational resources.

Teaching Assistantships & Internships – Giving emerging musicians and college-level music students hands-on teaching and mentorship experience.

Performance Opportunities – Providing students and local musicians with opportunities to perform, collaborate, and gain real-world experience.

Mentorship & Career Development – Connecting young musicians with professional artists, educators, and industry professionals.

Community Programs – Bringing accessible live jazz, educational experiences, and cultural programming to our communities.

Cross-Border Initiatives – Creating opportunities for students and musicians from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez to learn and collaborate together.

Festivals & Special Events – Supporting the production of performances and events that bring artists, students, families, and audiences together.

Every contribution helps strengthen the musical ecosystem of our region—from the young student picking up an instrument for the first time, to the college musician learning to become a teacher, to the professional artist giving back to the next generation.

Your Support Makes the Music Possible

When you give to The Jazz Exchange, you are helping create more than music. You are creating access, opportunity, mentorship, community, and connection.

Your generosity helps young people discover their voice, gives emerging musicians a pathway to share their knowledge, supports professional artists, and brings communities together through a shared love of music.

Thank you for investing in the next generation of musicians and helping us build a stronger, more connected, and culturally vibrant El Paso–Juárez–Las Cruces region—one note, one student, and one community at a time.