Terence Blanchard

FRED A. ERB JAZZ CREATIVE DIRECTOR CHAIR

Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator Terence Blanchard has served as the DSO’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair since 2012. Blanchard has performed and recorded with many of jazz’s superstars and currently leads the celebrated E-Collective. He is also wellknown for his decades-long collaboration with filmmaker Spike Lee, scoring more than 15 of Lee’s movies since the early 1990s. 2018’s BlacKkKlansman earned Blanchard his first Academy Award nomination, with a second Academy Award nomination in 2021 for Da 5 Bloods. In and out of the film world, Blanchard has received 14 Grammy nominations and six wins, as well as nominations for Emmy, Golden Globe, Sierra, and Soul Train Music awards.

Blanchard’s second opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the memoir of New York Times columnist Charles Blow, opened The Metropolitan Opera’s 20212022 season, making it the first opera by an African American composer to premiere at the Met. With a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, the opera was commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis where it premiered in 2019. The New York Times called it “inspiring,” “subtly powerful,” and “a bold affecting adaptation of Charles Blow’s work.” Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, also premiered to critical acclaim in 2013 in St. Louis and starred Denyce Graves with a libretto from Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Cristofer. Visit terenceblanchard.com for more.