Next Jazz Legacy: Mentorship for Emerging Jazz Artists
Application deadline: Friday, October 31, 2025 at 11:59PM (Eastern Time)
About
Next Jazz Legacy is a national apprenticeship and mentorship program designed to elevate emerging jazz improvisers. Operated in partnership with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and led by GRAMMY-winning artist and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington, the initiative increases opportunities for musicians who will contribute to a vibrant and inclusive jazz future.
Awardees receive a comprehensive support package including intergenerational mentorship, performance showcases at major jazz festivals, professional networking opportunities, and financial resources for creative and career development—helping secure a more equitable and sustainable future for jazz.
What Next Jazz Legacy Offers
The Next Jazz Legacy program combines individual and group learning opportunities with financial support and promotion. Our focus is emerging artists who are at a pivotal stage in the early phase of their career as professional artists. From 2025-2027 we will support seven artists per year with a comprehensive package that is designed to have a deep impact on each awardee's career. The awardees will benefit from the following:
Apprenticeship: learning by doing - performances under the stewardship of a master bandleader. Each awardee will be matched with a bandleader.
Creative and Business Mentorship: knowledge and guidance, passed from one generation to the next, from both artists and industry professionals. Each awardee will be matched with a creative mentor and a business mentor.
Cohort Learning Sessions (4 per cycle): an opportunity for awardees to learn together, exchange ideas and build a professional network under the guidance of Terri Lyne Carrington and selected guest speakers
(1) Berklee Online learning course provided by the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
Empowerment and promotion: experience for awardees to present and communicate about their music via showcases developed in collaboration with partner presenters, and artist profile films.
Financial investment: one $10,000 grant per awardee, which enables awardees to invest in the next stages of their career. Once selected, awardees will be asked to propose how they would use their grant to cover specific costs that would contribute to their career development. This will be signed off by the NJL project team. Awardees can consult with their business mentor for advice on best usage of funds.
Eligibility
Next Jazz Legacy seeks to support emerging artists whose access to resources and learning has been the most limited, including but not limited to, women of color and non-binary improvisers. This contributes to the jazz community as a whole by making it more accessible to a broader range of untapped artists and, longer-term, increasing the quality of the music itself.
The artist applying to this program must be:
An emerging artist with substantial professional experience
21-35 years old
Based in the US or a US territory
Available for full participation in the program between from January 2026 - January 2027
At this time, this program will not consider supporting artists who are:
Enrolled in an academic institution at any time during the duration of the program
Contracted with a third-party recording company
Based outside of the US
Not able to demonstrate their need for this program
Timeline
Application Launch: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 8:00AM (EST)
Application deadline: Friday, October 31, 2025 at 11:59PM (EST)
Awardees will be notifiedinlate December 2025.
Awardees will be announced publicly in late January 2025.
Application Requirements
1. Performance Videos: Please submit three (3) video performances featuring you in an ensemble setting. Please include at least one (1) original composition and/or an arrangement. You may include one (1) audio recording, but we highly encourage you to submit three (3) videos. Please ensure that your submission, comprising all three (3) video files, does not exceed a total duration of ten (10) minutes. If you are sharing a YouTube link of a full concert, please provide a timestamp that best represents your artistry.
2. Personal statement: The application form can be completed by submitting a video (max 2 mins) or uploading a written response (max 500 words) in a PDF or Word document format. You are not required to submit a video response, but you must please choose one of these approaches as our panel will only review one. You may provide links to YouTube or Vimeo or upload an .mp4, .mov, or .avi file if submitting a video. Please cover the following questions:
Tell us about your music and how you are seeking to grow as an artist
Why is this program important to you right now? Please consider the different opportunities the program is offering (e.g. apprenticeship, mentoring and being part of a cohort). Please also tell us about the barriers you’ve faced until now, if there are any you wish to disclose.
How would you gain from and contribute to the peer learning cohorts?
3. Resumé/CV (PDF)
Review Criteria/Process:
Applications will first be screened for eligibility and completeness and then moved to a peer review process. Submissions will be judged by a panel of independent artists and experts chaired by Terri Lyne Carrington. All applications will be judged equally on:
Artistry (creativity, interpretative skills), musicianship (technique, rhythmic interpretation, improvisation), and composing/arranging skills, as demonstrated through the submitted work samples
The impact that admission to this program would make on the next steps in your career
Please visit our FAQs here. Should you have any further questions about the Next Jazz Legacy program, please email us at nextjazzlegacy@newmusicusa.org.
Next Jazz Legacy
Next Jazz Legacy: Mentorship for Emerging Jazz Artists
Application deadline: Friday, October 31, 2025 at 11:59PM (Eastern Time)
About
Next Jazz Legacy is a national apprenticeship and mentorship program designed to elevate emerging jazz improvisers. Operated in partnership with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and led by GRAMMY-winning artist and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington, the initiative increases opportunities for musicians who will contribute to a vibrant and inclusive jazz future.
Awardees receive a comprehensive support package including intergenerational mentorship, performance showcases at major jazz festivals, professional networking opportunities, and financial resources for creative and career development—helping secure a more equitable and sustainable future for jazz.
What Next Jazz Legacy Offers
The Next Jazz Legacy program combines individual and group learning opportunities with financial support and promotion. Our focus is emerging artists who are at a pivotal stage in the early phase of their career as professional artists. From 2025-2027 we will support seven artists per year with a comprehensive package that is designed to have a deep impact on each awardee's career. The awardees will benefit from the following:
Apprenticeship: learning by doing - performances under the stewardship of a master bandleader. Each awardee will be matched with a bandleader.
Creative and Business Mentorship: knowledge and guidance, passed from one generation to the next, from both artists and industry professionals. Each awardee will be matched with a creative mentor and a business mentor.
Cohort Learning Sessions (4 per cycle): an opportunity for awardees to learn together, exchange ideas and build a professional network under the guidance of Terri Lyne Carrington and selected guest speakers
(1) Berklee Online learning course provided by the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
Empowerment and promotion: experience for awardees to present and communicate about their music via showcases developed in collaboration with partner presenters, and artist profile films.
Financial investment: one $10,000 grant per awardee, which enables awardees to invest in the next stages of their career. Once selected, awardees will be asked to propose how they would use their grant to cover specific costs that would contribute to their career development. This will be signed off by the NJL project team. Awardees can consult with their business mentor for advice on best usage of funds.
Eligibility
Next Jazz Legacy seeks to support emerging artists whose access to resources and learning has been the most limited, including but not limited to, women of color and non-binary improvisers. This contributes to the jazz community as a whole by making it more accessible to a broader range of untapped artists and, longer-term, increasing the quality of the music itself.
The artist applying to this program must be:
An emerging artist with substantial professional experience
21-35 years old
Based in the US or a US territory
Available for full participation in the program between from January 2026 - January 2027
At this time, this program will not consider supporting artists who are:
Enrolled in an academic institution at any time during the duration of the program
Contracted with a third-party recording company
Based outside of the US
Not able to demonstrate their need for this program
Timeline
Application Launch: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 8:00AM (EST)
Application deadline: Friday, October 31, 2025 at 11:59PM (EST)
Awardees will be notifiedinlate December 2025.
Awardees will be announced publicly in late January 2025.
Application Requirements
1. Performance Videos: Please submit three (3) video performances featuring you in an ensemble setting. Please include at least one (1) original composition and/or an arrangement. You may include one (1) audio recording, but we highly encourage you to submit three (3) videos. Please ensure that your submission, comprising all three (3) video files, does not exceed a total duration of ten (10) minutes. If you are sharing a YouTube link of a full concert, please provide a timestamp that best represents your artistry.
2. Personal statement: The application form can be completed by submitting a video (max 2 mins) or uploading a written response (max 500 words) in a PDF or Word document format. You are not required to submit a video response, but you must please choose one of these approaches as our panel will only review one. You may provide links to YouTube or Vimeo or upload an .mp4, .mov, or .avi file if submitting a video. Please cover the following questions:
Tell us about your music and how you are seeking to grow as an artist
Why is this program important to you right now? Please consider the different opportunities the program is offering (e.g. apprenticeship, mentoring and being part of a cohort). Please also tell us about the barriers you’ve faced until now, if there are any you wish to disclose.
How would you gain from and contribute to the peer learning cohorts?
3. Resumé/CV (PDF)
Review Criteria/Process:
Applications will first be screened for eligibility and completeness and then moved to a peer review process. Submissions will be judged by a panel of independent artists and experts chaired by Terri Lyne Carrington. All applications will be judged equally on:
Artistry (creativity, interpretative skills), musicianship (technique, rhythmic interpretation, improvisation), and composing/arranging skills, as demonstrated through the submitted work samples
The impact that admission to this program would make on the next steps in your career
Please visit our FAQs here. Should you have any further questions about the Next Jazz Legacy program, please email us at nextjazzlegacy@newmusicusa.org.