Terence Oliver Blanchard was born on March 13,1962 and is an American trumpeter, pianist and composer.
30 Facts About Terence Blanchard
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Terence Blanchard started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers.
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Terence Blanchard has composed more than forty film scores and performed on more than fifty.
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Terence Blanchard has won five Grammy Awards from fourteen nominations.
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From 2000 to 2011, Blanchard served as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
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Terence Blanchard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the only child of Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver Terence Blanchard.
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Terence Blanchard's father was a manager at an insurance company and a part-time opera singer.
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Terence Blanchard began playing piano at the age of five, then the trumpet at age eight after hearing Alvin Alcorn.
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Terence Blanchard played trumpet with his childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps, along with his friend Branford Marsalis.
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Terence Blanchard played alongside Blakey, Donald Harrison, and Mulgrew Miller, recording five albums from 1984 to 1988.
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Terence Blanchard left the Jazz Messengers in 1990 to pursue a solo career.
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Terence Blanchard composed the score for Spike Lee's four-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO entitled When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
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Terence Blanchard appeared in front of the camera with his mother to share their journey back to find her home destroyed.
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Terence Blanchard created a 2007 album titled A Tale of God's Will in which he recreated some pieces used in the documentary, as well as creating more pieces along with his band, to provide audiences with the opportunity to sympathize with those who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.
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Terence Blanchard has composed for other directors, including Gina Prince Bythewood, Ron Shelton, and Kasi Lemmons.
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Terence Blanchard has recorded several award-winning albums for Columbia, Sony Classical and Blue Note Records, including In My Solitude: The Billie Holiday Songbook, Romantic Defiance, The Heart Speaks, Wandering Moon, Let's Get Lost and Flow, which was produced by pianist Herbie Hancock and received two Grammy Award nominations.
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In 2005, Terence Blanchard was part of the ensemble that won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his participation on McCoy Tyner's Illuminations, an award he shared with Tyner, Gary Bartz, Christian McBride and Lewis Nash.
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Terence Blanchard was a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
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In 2009 in the Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog, Terence Blanchard played all of the alligator Louis' trumpet parts.
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Terence Blanchard voiced the role of Earl the bandleader in the riverboat band.
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Terence Blanchard participates in master classes and community outreach activities associated with the program.
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In December 2007, the Terence Blanchard Quintet performed the movie music of Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard with an orchestra and singers Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, and Raul Midon at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
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On February 10,2008, Terence Blanchard won his first Grammy Award as a bandleader for A Tale of God's Will in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
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Terence Blanchard served as the composer of the original score, marking the first time he has worked with executive producer George Lucas.
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Terence Blanchard composed incidental music for the 2012 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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Terence Blanchard released Magnetic May 28,2013, on Blue Note Records.
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Cuepoint, on the web publishing site, Medium, published Terence Blanchard's essay, "Using Music to Underscore Three Words: I Can't Breathe" which details Terence Blanchard's revulsion by the death of Eric Garner and how the subsequent "I Can't Breathe" campaign inspired the series of songs the E-Collective created for the album.
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On November 9,2019, Terence Blanchard performed alongside Lady Gaga as a special guest during her Jazz and Piano show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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On June 15,2013, after a workshop with Opera Fusion: New Works, Terence Blanchard premiered his first opera, Champion, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
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Terence Blanchard is the first Black composer to have an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera.