{"id":2246430,"date":"2026-01-23T01:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2246430"},"modified":"2026-01-23T01:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:04:14","slug":"earshot-jazz-names-new-executive-director-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/earshot-jazz-names-new-executive-director-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Earshot Jazz names new executive director | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One year after longtime Earshot Jazz Executive Director John Gilbreath announced his retirement<\/a>, the Seattle nonprofit has announced that its search for leadership is at an end. Stephan Blanford, who in July stepped down after five years as the executive director of Children\u2019s Alliance, has been named the new executive director of Earshot Jazz. He began the job last week and likens his initial days to \u201cdrinking from a fire hose.\u201d Luckily, he\u2019s done this before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been about 30 years in Seattle,\u201d Blanford said, \u201cand every year, I\u2019ll go to at least one show at the [Earshot Jazz] Festival, but some years a lot<\/em> of shows. Some of my favorite jazz musicians I\u2019ve been introduced to through Earshot.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Earshot Jazz news release noted that over 70 applicants sent in resumes for the position. After reading about Gilbreath\u2019s retirement last year, Blanford said, \u201cThere was part of me that wondered if stepping into this role might work out.\u201d He\u2019d previously told the Children\u2019s Alliance board that he wanted to remain executive director for five years, and his five years were up. \u201cThey were sad to see me leave,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I was ready to do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanford\u2019s love of jazz arrived at an early age. His father was in the military and moved the family around a lot. As an audiophile, he also lugged around the family music collection. \u201cI remember reading 8-track tape notes as a little kid in Japan,\u201d said Blanford. And the jazz habit only picked up with time. \u201cMy first trip with my girlfriend, who became my wife, was to see the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

These bona fides relate to artistic taste, not organizational aptitude. But for a nonprofit like Earshot, where music is the mission, taste matters. In Earshot\u2019s news release, Board Chair Maurice James wrote, \u201c[Blanford\u2019s] depth of nonprofit experience, combined with his lifelong passion for jazz, makes him the ideal person to shepherd Earshot into its next chapter.\u201d The release adds that Blanford \u201chelped to secure billions in new investments for kids\u201d during his time at Children\u2019s Alliance.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that Blanford has large shoes to fill at Earshot Jazz, and not just because his predecessor is a tall guy. Over Gilbreath\u2019s 33-year tenure, he became known as a premier booker of national jazz talent, both at Seattle\u2019s annual Earshot Jazz Festival and at other events. Blanford said that nothing has been decided yet with regards to booking this year\u2019s festival. But he\u2019s got plenty of help. Halynn Blanchard, who\u2019s organized events and artist relations across innumerable local stages, hit the ball out of the park booking last year\u2019s 37th<\/sup> Earshot Jazz Festival. If it\u2019s on the table, fans would welcome a repeat experience.<\/p>\n

For now, Blanford is busily adjusting to his new position. He met every board and staff member during the interview process \u2014<\/strong> \u201cIt was pretty involved,\u201d he said \u2014<\/strong> but the real test will be how he interfaces with the community. Jazz is on the up and up in Seattle<\/a> but remains a precarious economical pursuit. Here\u2019s hoping that Earshot can strengthen the framework not just for local fans, but for local musicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to listen to our audience, both our existing audience and our audience that we can aspire to grow to,\u201d said Blanford. \u201cI want to hear what their preferences are. That way, we can make sure that jazz remains strong here in Seattle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year after longtime Earshot Jazz Executive Director John Gilbreath announced his retirement, the Seattle nonprofit has announced that its search for leadership is at an end. Stephan Blanford, who in July stepped down after five years as the executive director of Children\u2019s Alliance, has been named the new executive director of Earshot Jazz. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2246431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2246430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Earshot-Jazz-names-new-executive-director-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2246432,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246430\/revisions\/2246432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2246431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}