Terence Blanchard in San Francisco

Terence Blanchard is an American trumpeter and composer, born in New Orleans in 1962. His music encompasses hard bop, post-bop, contemporary electric jazz and orchestral scoring. He is known for albums including A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), for his scores to Spike Lee films such as Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X and BlacKkKlansman, and for the operas Champion and Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Terence Blanchard toured with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra before joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 1980s. He subsequently led his own acoustic groups and the electric ensemble E-Collective in clubs, concert halls and at jazz festivals. He later moved into opera: Champion premiered at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2013, and the company presented the premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones in 2019 before the work opened the 2021–22 season at the Metropolitan Opera.