originally published: 05/10/2026
(JERSEY CITY, NJ) — A $15,000 grant has been awarded to Riverview Jazz by Chamber Music America to be used to present two Jersey City performances by the esteemed avant-garde jazz musician Tim Berne at Pet Shop on Tuesday, May 26 and on the RWJBarnabas Plaza Stage at the Jersey City Jazz Festival on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
“Tim Berne is a visionary artist that is constantly pushing the boundaries of music and sound,” says Bryan Beninghove, Riverview Jazz Executive Director and Founder. “Thanks to this wonderful grant from Chamber Music of America, we are able to present these innovative sounds to our audience at our annual Jersey City Jazz Festival. Thank you CMA!”
Tim Berne is a composer, saxophonist and educator specializing in improvised music. His music is a potent blend of new voices and new ideas, with compositions that balance compositional rigor with fluid group improvisation. Hypnotic rhythms and long, seductive melodies collide with jagged dissonances and surprising textural shifts that result in a lush, organic blend of saxophones and clarinets, layered with guitar and accordion and an ever-changing tapestry of percussion. Berne incorporates freedom and discipline, consonance and discord, and past, present and future.
He will lead the Tim Berne 4 at Pet Shop in Jersey City on Tuesday, May 26 starting at 8:00pm. Tickets can be purchased using this link. Tim Berne 4 includes: Tim Angulo, Gregg Belisle-Chi and John Hèbert. On Saturday, May 30, the Tim Berne 6 will perform at 2:00pm on the RWJBarnabas Plaza Stage during the Jersey City Jazz Festival, with Aurora Nealand, Hery Paz, John Hèbert, Gregg Belisle-Chi and Tom Rainey. Admission to the Jersey City Jazz Festival is free.
Riverview Jazz’s presentation of Tim Berne and is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Pet Shop Jersey City.
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A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Chamber Music America, the national network of ensemble music professionals, was founded in 1977 to develop, strengthen, and support the chamber music community. With a membership including musicians, ensembles, presenters, artists’ managers, educators, music businesses, and advocates of ensemble music, CMA welcomes members representing a wide range of musical styles and traditions. In addition to its funding programs, CMA provides its members with consulting services, access to instrument and other insurances, conferences, seminars, and its quarterly publication, Chamber Music magazine.
Riverview Jazz is a Jersey City-based non-profit producing year-round world-class straight-ahead jazz and Latin jazz events, bringing the community together through music, including the Jersey City Jazz Festival.
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