Letter From The Director

It Takes A Village

And this village knows how to get to work! Thank you all for your generosity of time, creativity, finances, and dedication to keep the world of jazz spinning right here in Seattle. It has been a treat to join so many of you at the fundraising galas of other arts organizations this spring and, of course, we’re deeply grateful for your support of Earshot Jazz. 

Thanks as well to the many citizens who’ve gone to bat for the legendary jazz program at Washington Middle School. The importance of dedicated jazz (and all arts) education programs to Seattle’s overall good cannot be overstated. Accordingly, we congratulate all the young artists from Garfield, Roosevelt, and Bothell High Schools for representing the Seattle area so well at the recent Essentially Ellington competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. We’re all so proud. 

In this issue, we’re glad to shine a well-deserved spotlight on Seattle jazz advocate, Haley Freedlund. A resourceful, tireless, and positive force on stage and off, Haley is an accomplished instrumentalist, event producer, organizer, and tour manager. They’re definitely our nominee for next year’s JJA Jazz Hero award. Also, as we roll into this summer (thank God), we’ll keep you posted on the full schedule of summer festivals throughout the region.

And speaking of festivals, we are hard at work creating the schedule for this fall’s Earshot Jazz Festival. Always striving to be engaging, inclusive, and responsive to the village we share, this 35th edition builds on direct suggestions expressed in our most recent Community Forum. Calls for more Latin influences, stronger intersections with hip-hop culture, events related to swing and blues-dance, more youth-focused programming, more women artists, the honoring of our elders, and opening stages to emerging and under-served artists are informing our programming. As always, we’re open to further suggestions at jazz@earshot.org. With your help, we’re cooking up an exciting festival lineup. We plan to have events on sale next month. Stay tuned for details. 

Always in fluid motion, jazz creatively reflects the multiplicity of ideas, influences, and experiences of our changing world, just as the diversity of individual ideas, influences, and experiences inform and enhance the greater world we’re building together. The Earshot organization is proud to remain a hard-working citizen of this village. We’re grateful for your support and participation. Thank you!

—JOHN GILBREATH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR