Terence Blanchard at Muziekgebouw

Two-time Oscar nominee, six-time Grammy-winner and 2018 USA Fellow trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has blown audiences away with his bands, film scores and operas. In 2021, with his opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones  he became the first Afro-American artist whose music was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Like few others, Blanchard, 61, expertly fuses classical with contemporary American musical styles. This evening he will take the stage of Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, teaming up with his jazz band E-Collective (featuring Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano, Oscar Seaton Jr. on drums, and David “DJ” Ginyard on bass, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, to pay homage to Wayne Shorter, considered one of the world’s greatest contemporary composers. Blanchard will propose the contents of  Absence, a studio album released in 2021, by Blue Note.  In this album, Blanchard celebrates his mentor, performing arrangements of his music along with an array of original work.

A powerful artistic force in the jazz world, Blanchard has served as the music director of Art Blakley’s Jazz Messengers from 1982 to 1986. He has also collaborated with filmmakers like Spike Lee, George Lucas, Kasi Lemmons, and many others.

The Turtle Island Quartet won the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Awards. Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma called them “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”

Blanchard will also play at Philarmonie  in Luxembourg on 22 February.