Terence Blanchard and Turtle Island Quartet

Called “a brass-wielding force of nature” by the Los Angeles Times, two-time Oscar nominee and six-time Grammy-winner trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard stops by with his Grammy-nominated quintet The E-Collective, joined by the acclaimed Turtle Island Quartet, performing music from Blanchard’s 2021 Blue Note release Absence, inspired by the great Wayne Shorter.

Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force, Mass MoCA says, making powerful musical statements concerning pivotal moments in American culture–past and present. Blanchard is celebrated not only for his albums and live performances but also for creating strong backdrops to human stories, from his expansive scores for Spike Lee films — such as his Oscar-nominated BlacKkKlansman (2018) score — to his opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which became the first opera by an African American composer to premiere at the Met.

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From his expansive work composing the scores for Spike Lee films ranging from the documentary When the Levees Broke, about Blanchard’s hometown of New Orleans during the devastation from Hurricane Katrina to the epic Malcolm X; and the latest Lee film, Da 5 Bloods which was released by Netflix on June 12, Blanchard has interwoven melodies that created strong backdrops to human stories.

Blanchard received an Oscar nomination for his original score for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. He was also BAFTA nominated for his original music for the film. He won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for writing “Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)” a track from BlacKkKlansman.

Grammy 2More recently, Blanchard has composed his second opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the memoir of celebrated writer and The New York Times columnist Charles Blow. The libretto was written by Kasi Lemmons and commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis where it premiered in June 2019. The New York Times has called Blanchard’s opera “inspiring,” “subtly powerful” and “a bold affecting adaptation of Charles Blow’s work.”

The Metropolitan Opera will premiere Fire Shut Up in My Bones on September 27, 2021 to open their 2021-22 season in New York, making it the first opera composed by an African American composer to premiere at the Met. Blanchard’s first opera, Champion also premiered to critical acclaim in 2013 at OTSL and starred Denyce Graves with a libretto from Pulitzer Prize Winner, Michael Cristofer.

With his current quintet The E-Collective, featured on the score to BlacKkKlansman with a 96-piece orchestra, Blanchard delivered “a soaring, seething, luxuriant score,” The New York Times. In Vice Magazine, Blanchard elaborates, “In BlacKkKlansman it all became real to me. You feel the level of intolerance that exists for people who ignore other people’s pain. Musically, I can’t ignore that. I can’t add to that intolerance. Instead I have to help people heal from it. “