Terence Blanchard

Terence Oliver Blanchard born March 13 1962 is an American jazz trumpeter and composer He has also written two operas and more than 80 film and television scores Blanchard has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Original Score for BlacKkKlansman 2018 and Da 5 Bloods both directed by Spike Lee a frequent collaborator  Blanchard started his career in 1980 playing in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra while studying jazz at Rutgers University In 1982 just before he turned 20 he dropped out of Rutgers to join The Jazz Messengers launching a professional career now in its fifth decade The Metropolitan Opera in New York staged Blanchards opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones in its 20212022 season the first opera by an African American composer in the organizations history Blanchard is also a passionate educational mentor From 2000 to 2011 Blanchard served as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz In 2011 he was named artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami and in 2015 he became a visiting scholar in jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music In 2019 the University of California Los Angeles UCLA named Blanchard to its Endowed Chair in Jazz Studies where he remained until 2023 In 2023 SFJAZZ announced the appointment of Blanchard as Executive Artistic Director He leads the organizations artistic programming and guides its overall creative direction Blanchard was selected as the 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters The program is one of the most prestigious honours in jazz Abbey Lincoln Herbie Hancock Chick Corea and Sonny Rollins are among the 173 fellows recognized by the NEA as great figures of jazz Description above from the Wikipedia article Terence Blanchard licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia