Atlanta, GA — October 8, 2025 — South Arts is pleased to announce the Summer 2025 cohort of Jazz Road Artists—a group awarded up to $15,000 through the seasonal initiative to support their touring efforts across the nation. This recipient class is made up of 14 artists and ensembles receiving funding from the Jazz Road Tours initiative to promote and tour their artistry around the nation.
Organized by South Arts with support from Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, Jazz Road Tours annually awards approximately 50 jazz artists with grants ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 to cover a portion of tour expenses and tighten the pay gap between artists and presenters. Some of these expenses may include venue and travel fees, equitable pay for the artists, or costs of management, coordination, childcare, and promotion.
| Brass Queens New York | The Cat's Glasses Colorado |
| Braxton Cook Quartet California | The Sofia Goodman Trio Tennessee |
| The Eric Essix Group Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Southbound Alabama | Makaya Mccraven Illinois |
| Concurrence California | Michael Janisch Band Wisconsin |
| Reed Miller and Straight Up! New York | Arco Belo Maryland |
| Riley Mulherkar New York | Vin Scialla & Brooklyn Raga Massive New York |
Simon Mogul Quartet | |
“With more than 50 performances across 23 states, the Summer 2025 Jazz Road Tours celebrate the expansive reach and vision of today’s jazz artists, bringing bold, artist-led work into theaters, schools, community centers, and rural stages nationwide,” said Drew Tucker, Director of Jazz, South Arts. “From Braxton Cook’s genre-defying reflections, to Sofia Goodman’s rhythm-forward compositions, to Brass Queens’ high-energy, all-female brass sound rooted in New Orleans tradition, this cohort reflects the vibrant diversity and connective power of jazz on the road.”
A selection of individual tours officially will kick off in October 2025 and the remainder will continue through July 2026, spanning cities across the country, such as Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; Nashville, TN; Pittsburgh, PA; Richmond, VA; Seattle, WA; and more.
As a core component of South Arts’ national Jazz Road initiative, Jazz Road Tours is coordinated in partnership with five fellow regional arts organizations: Arts Midwest, Mid America Arts, Mid-Atlantic Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation. Since launching in 2018, the program has supported more than 170 artists with funding to expand their footprint and elevate their artistry on a national scale.
Artists are welcome to submit a written application and work samples, which are reviewed and selected by a panel of experts across the field. Based on the artistic excellence and merit of the proposed tour, recipients are chosen for support. Applications for Jazz Road Tours are open on a seasonal cycle through 2026.
To learn more about Jazz Road, awarded artists and their tours, or to apply for support, please visit southarts.org.
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About South Arts
South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.
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