Jazz Aid Fund Awards Grants to 20 Bay Area Artists
Eight San Jose-based acts are among the recipients of $1,000 grants from San Jose Jazz.
Updated on Nov. 8, 2026 in Jazz
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San Jose Jazz has awarded $1,000 grants to 20 Bay Area musical recipients. Selected grantees will premiere commissions at SJZ New Works Fest from February 19 to March 6, 2027.
Why it matters
The grants support working musicians in the Bay Area and fund new original work, with recipients chosen through recommendations from local critics, presenters, curators and fellow artists. For San Jose, it reinforces the city's role as a home base for jazz creation.
The Jazz Aid Fund has awarded $208,000 in grants and performance fees since 2021 and supported 140 new works. Eight of this year's 20 recipients are San Jose-based.
The players
San Jose Jazz
San Jose Jazz is a nonprofit jazz organization based in San Jose that runs the Jazz Aid Fund and the SJZ New Works Fest.
Aaron Lington
Aaron Lington is a Grammy-winning baritone saxophonist and composer who was named a 2015 Silicon Valley Artist Laureate.
The details
Recipients were hand-picked through recommendations from Bay Area critics, presenters, curators and fellow artists. A handful of the new grantees will premiere their commissions in a series of shows at SJZ New Works Fest.
Timeline
2021: The Jazz Aid Fund began awarding grants.
2024: Bennett Roth-Newell won the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award.
February 19 to March 6, 2027: SJZ New Works Fest premiere shows are scheduled.
Season Trajectory
The grants extend San Jose Jazz's Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award tradition, with past winners including Mason Razavi in 2021 and Bennett Roth-Newell in 2024. Together these programs position the organization as a central funder of new Bay Area jazz composition.
Local listeners can catch the new commissions when they premiere at SJZ New Works Fest from February 19 to March 6, 2027. The shows offer a chance to hear work made possible by the grants before it reaches wider audiences.
The takeaway
Support for emerging artists through small, recurring grants can build a lasting creative pipeline, as the 140 works from the Jazz Aid Fund show. Following local festival premieres is one direct way to hear that output.
What happens next
A handful of the 20 new grantees will premiere their commissions at SJZ New Works Fest from February 19 to March 6, 2027.
Further reading
Explore more in Jazz coverage for the broader scene behind these grants.
Source note: This article includes information reported by San Jose Mercury News.
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