The Golden Ear Awards 2016

Award recipients (top row) Bill Anschell, Kate Voss, Birch Pereira, Alex Dugdale, (bottom row) Julian Priester, Dawn Clement, and Mark Taylor. Photo by Daniel Sheehan.

The 2016 Golden Ear Awards, celebrating the contributions and achievements in Seattle jazz, were presented at The Royal Room on March 13. The 200 Trio – Cole Schuster on guitar, Greg Feingold on bass, and Max Holmberg on drums – opened the evening, and jazz radio broadcaster Jim Wilke emceed the award ceremony.

Each year, the Golden Ear awards give jazz fans an opportunity to vote for the outstanding musicians, community members and events of the previous year. A call for nominations goes out in January, with a public ballot then distributed by the Earshot Jazz website and publication. Nearly 2,000 votes were cast this year.

We congratulate all the nominees in this annual look at the region’s vibrant jazz ecology, and thank you, Golden Ear voters, for your participation in recognizing and celebrating all of the incredible talent in the Northwest.

Dawn Clement (with baby Della), Julian Priester, and Mark Taylor accept the award for Concert of the Year. Photo by Daniel Sheehan.

Bill Anschell was voted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame. Photo by Daniel Sheehan.

About the Golden Ear Awards

Earshot Jazz initiated the Golden Ear Awards in 1990 to recognize the accomplishments of Seattle jazz artists over the previous year, and to induct significant members of the jazz community into the local Jazz Hall of Fame. Over the years, the award categories have shifted slighty, but the essence of the process has remained the same.