ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT

Jenny Klukken - marimba album.jpg
The album is brilliant. She is a gifted musician with a profound knack for sonic portraiture.
— Kevin O'Connor, JAZZ 88.5 KBEM
Her music exudes freshness and creativity. Jenny’s execution is perfect as are all the musicians who accompany her in this magnificent project.
— Eric Sammut, marimbist/composer
Fulltime jazz marimba players have always been scarce... Klukken hopes to change all of that.
— Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian
Refreshing and impressive
— Ron Samuels, Marimba one

Color in Motion,

Jenny Klukken’s debut album

with collaborators:

Chris Bates, Bryan Nichols, Nachito Herrera, Carlomagno Araya, Fernando Meza, David Schmalenberger, Karla Colahan, Olivia Deircks, Daniel Volovets, Bob Barnes, Riley Helgeson, Steve Yeager.

Recorded at Wild Sound Studio with Steve Kaul. Written and produced by Jenny Klukken.

Music BIO

Jenny Klukken is a marimbist, composer, recording artist and educator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since studying percussion performance at the University of Minnesota, Jenny has developed her career as a crossover marimbist, performing and writing music in styles including Jazz, Pop, Americana, Hip Hop, Brazilian, and more. In 2018, she received an MRAC Next Step grant to travel to Paris, France to study marimba composition and improvisation with Eric Sammut. This trip helped Jenny fully realize her creative voice as a marimbist who crosses over into improv-based music genres like jazz and folk. Her album “Color in Motion” encapsulates her sound and centers the 5 octave marimba as the leader of the ensemble. 

As an educator, Klukken encourages young marimbists to embrace improvisation in order to make themselves a more balanced, versatile, and adaptive musician. Jenny currently teaches percussion and music careers courses at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and offers lessons out of her private studio in Richfield. She is the creative director of the Patreon community/resource for creative marimbists called the Crossover Marimba Collective, which holds an annual in-person workshop in Minneapolis. Jenny is proud to be a premier artist with Marimba One.


Honors and Awards

  • MPR Class Notes Artist Grantee - 2015 & 2017 (MATRA) and 2020, 202102024 (Flipside Percussion)

  • Metropolitan Regional Arts Foundation - Next Step Grantee

  • MacPhail Center for Music / McKnight Foundation artistic development grant - 2016 winner for Marimba Nova concert Series

  • MacPhail Center for Music / McKnight Foundation artistic development grant - 2019 winner for travel and teaching in Costa Rica

  • Resident Artist for Black Dog Music, with MATRA 2014

  • Jerome Foundation - Jerome Hill fellowship finalist 2021

  • Premier Artist endorsement with Marimba One of Arcata, California 2021

  • Color in Motion ranked #20 on JazzWeek, August 23rd 2021

  • Twin Cities Jazz Fest June 2022, June 2025

  • BeSpoken Fellow, 2023-2024