Terence Blanchard
About this Artist
Born in New Orleans in 1962, Terence 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 eight Grammy awards from 15 nominations, composed for the stage and for more than 60 films, earned two Academy Award nominations, and received 10 major commissions. He was named a 2024 NEA Jazz Master as well as a member of the 2024 class of the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of SFJAZZ, the largest nonprofit jazz presenter in the world.
Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies—past and present. A true Renaissance man, Blanchard stands tall as one of jazz’s most esteemed trumpeters and defies expectations by creating a spectrum of artistic pursuits. Boundary-breaking and genre-defying, Blanchard is recognized globally as a dazzling soloist and a prolific composer for film, television, opera, Broadway, orchestras, and his own ensembles.