The CNY Jazz Arts Foundation enriches our community by sustaining and presenting the art form of American Jazz.

CNY Jazz's broader goals are to present jazz as an art form using the finest local, regional, and national artists available. Jazz, and our efforts to promote it, are by nature a uniquely American multicultural endeavor.

By definition and by design, we continually seek to artistically communicate across cultural barriers in every way possible. Further, CNY Jazz seeks to broaden the existing audience and train future generations of artists and audiences so that America's only indigenous art form does not whither.

Our efforts differ from those of symphony orchestras and opera companies only in the style of music we present. We feel strongly that jazz is as worthy of representation in America as European art music.

Other regional not-for-profit jazz orchestras and presenting organizations have recently achieved rapid growth and recognition vital to our quality of life; i.e., the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Dallas, Seattle, Chicago and Smithsonian Jazz Orchestras, and others steadily being created in cities nationwide. We are determined to do likewise for the citizens of Central Upstate New York.