MENDOCINO CO., 1/30/26 — The Humboldt Area Foundation announced it will offer a new grant for young musicians in Northern Mendocino and Humboldt counties to pursue a career in music. The grant, called the Cyrus Wong-Weissman Music Fund, is named for a well-loved musician who passed away at his Whale Gulch home in 2023. He was 42 years old.
The Humboldt Area Foundation is partnering with the Mateel Community Center, a nonprofit arts and culture organization with a popular venue in southern Humboldt, to solicit donations and sponsors for the grant. According to the foundation, the grant will be available to young people to apply to in a few weeks.
According to Cyrus Wong-Weissman’s father, Peter Weissman, Northern Mendocino students eligible for the fund will be those in the Leggett, Piercy and Whale Gulch areas, at the northern tip of Mendocino County.
In a statement on the foundation’s website, it reads, “The Cyrus Wong-Weissman Music Fund is intended for kids up to the age of 18 who reside in Northern Mendocino and Humboldt counties who have an interest in pursuing music, either to buy an instrument, take music lessons, attend music camps, purchase musical equipment, etc.”
Wong-Weissman was born in Whale Gulch on Aug. 27, 1981. He graduated from South Fork High School in 1999 and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. He later took classes at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, a school that has since closed, where he studied sound design. Wong-Weissman performed in several Bay Area bands and did sound engineering work for the Oakland jazz venue Yoshi’s.
After several years in the Bay Area, Wong-Weissman moved back to his home in Whale Gulch, looking to spend more time on his music and be near his family. He was an accomplished bassist and lent his talents to many local bands, including the Latin Peppers, The Garbervillains, Special Guest Family and Blu Axis.
The Humboldt Area Foundation’s site adds that, “Cyrus had a deep belief in the power of music to heal, to bring people together, to build and create community connections.”
The foundation is taking donations for the Cyrus Wong-Weissman Music Fund, which can be made by clicking this link. Southern Humboldt rapper and poet Eli Fowler, a friend of Wong-Weissman’s and a former bandmate, is organizing a concert at the Stone Junction in Garberville to raise money for the fund. Several local bands will be performing. The event will be on Feb. 13, with music starting at 6 p.m. The entrance fee is $10, and the event is for those who are 21 and older.