It’s a tale of two cousins—both from southern Louisiana. One is a Grammy Award-winning, NEA Jazz Master originally from New Orleans, now living on the West Coast. The other cousin, a university president leading Houston’s second largest institution of higher education, was born and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Now Terence Blanchard is performing a concert of his original film scores in honor of the University of Houston-Downtown’s (UHD) 50th anniversary on the invitation of his cousin, Dr. Loren J. Blanchard.
Slated for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, “TERENCE BLANCHARD LIVE FOR UHD: Film Scores,
Jazz and Beyond” will fill the
University of Houston (UH) Cullen Performance Hall, 4300 University Drive, with the sounds of Blanchard’s unforgettable jazz stylings. Joining him on stage will be his own band, The E-Collective, plus student musicians from the UH Moores School of Music. This concert is funded in part by a City Initiative grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
The two cousins will be part of a free, open-to-the-public Fireside Chat at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, in the TDECU Tour Room of the UHD Welcome Center, One Main Street.
“The importance of this concert is to amplify the power of jazz in bringing so many people in the greater Houston area together in support of UHD and, specifically, our student success efforts,” said Dr. Blanchard. “Proceeds from this concert will help remove the barriers that many of our students face by providing emergency grants and scholarships. The ultimate impact of this concert will result in uplifting our students and aiding them in reaching the college degree finish line at UHD.”
With more than 75 credits to his name to date, Terence Blanchard is a true titan in the world of composition for film and television. His major scores include Spike Lee Joints such as “Mo Better Blues” and “25th Hour,” Kasi Lemmons films such as “Eve's Bayou” and “Harriet,” alongside scores for Regina King (“One Night in Miami”), George Lucas (“Red Tails”), and Gina Prince (“The Woman King”). “TERENCE BLANCHARD LIVE FOR UHD: Film Scores, Jazz and Beyond” showcases the stunning scores and songs from several films, featuring Blanchard’s band and full orchestra.
“Music is in the Blanchard Family DNA. Terence’s father was an opera singer; my father was a saxophone player,” said Dr. Blanchard. “We all knew by the time Terence was a teenager that he would become an icon in the jazz music world and beyond. We are all so proud of the many different musical forms he has explored to have a positive influence on people—from opera to R&B to jazz. We have other musical icons in the Blanchard family—from a renowned violinist to a drummer—and this concert is a time to bring them all together, for the first time, in celebration of Terence’s multiple talents and the 50th anniversary of UHD.”
ABOUT TERENCE BLANCHARD
Boundary-breaking and genre-defying, Blanchard is recognized globally as a dazzling soloist and a prolific composer for film, television, opera, Broadway, orchestras and for his own ensembles. In fact, leading theater magazine TheaterMania recently cited Blanchard as “the most exciting American composer working in opera today.” Most recently, he was named an official 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master as well as a member of the 2024 class of awardees for the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Letters.
One of the world’s most recognizable composers for film, Blanchard became only the second African American artist to be nominated twice in the original score category at the Academy Awards, duplicating Quincy Jones’ feat from 1967’s “In Cold Blood” and 1985’s “The Color Purple.” He has composed the scores for more than 20 Spike Lee projects over three decades - ranging from the documentary “When the Levees Broke” to the recent Lee films “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods” (both of which garnered Blanchard Oscar nominations).
In addition to Blanchard’s film scoring, he is also a groundbreaking opera composer. The Metropolitan Opera staged a remount of Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” on Sept. 27, 2021, which broke box office records at the Met, also making it the first opera by an African American composer to premiere at the Met in its 138-year history. “Fire” has been widely recognized as one of our nation’s most important cultural milestones and returned to the Met for a second run in April of 2024. Both this opera and Blanchard’s first opera, “Champion,” which was staged at the Met in April 2023, received Grammy Awards for “Best Opera Recording.” Blanchard has earned a total of eight Grammy Awards alongside nine other nominations.
Born in New Orleans in 1962, Blanchard is a musical polymath who launched his solo career as a bandleader in the 1990s. Since then, he has released 20 solo albums, garnered 15 Grammy nominations, composed for the stage and for more than 60 films, and received 10 major commissions.
Today Blanchard lives in Los Angeles as well as in his native New Orleans and serves as the Executive Artistic Director for SFJazz, the largest nonprofit jazz presenter in the world.
DON’T MISS OUT
Early Bird tickets range from $43 to $213 until Sept. 30; regularly priced tickets will be $50 to $250. VIP seating includes the Fireside Chat with Terence Blanchard on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, and a meet and greet opportunity with the artist the evening of the concert. Visit uhd.edu/50yearsconcert to purchase tickets.