In 2021, Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones was the first opera by a Black composer performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Based on Charles M. Blow’s harrowing memoir, this powerful musical exploration of race, sexuality, and identity offers a rare opportunity to hear the composer performing in an intimate concert version of his own work, which will stay with you long after the final notes have faded.
With seven Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations, jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has been a consistent force for powerful musical statements on painful American tragedies, past and present. At the 2022 Academy Awards, Blanchard became only the second African-American composer (with Quincy Jones) to be nominated twice for an original film score. Of this historical moment, Blanchard says, “I don't want to be a token, but a turnkey."
