Terence Blanchard

About

Trumpeter, composer, and SFJAZZ Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard kicks off the new year with this residency showcasing an exclusive program of music. A savvy bandleader, celebrated film composer, brilliant jazz writer, and influential educator, the GRAMMY-winning New Orleans native is a major creative force in the modern jazz scene. A prodigious trumpeter, he cut his teeth as a member of drummer Art Blakey’s iconic ensemble The Jazz Messengers and has risen to become one of the most in-demand collaborators in jazz. He has composed over 40 movie scores, including soundtracks for the majority of director Spike Lee’s work, making Blanchard the most prolific jazz artist working in film. An active composer for opera, he presented a revised version of his Champion: An Opera in Jazz at SFJAZZ in February 2016, and his follow-up, Fire Shut Up in My Bones , became the first opera by a Black composer to be presented at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2021. Blanchard was appointed SFJAZZ Executive Artistic Director in 2023 and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2024.