NEA Jazz Master and eight-time Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer Terence Blanchard returns to Houston for one night only, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, in celebration of the University of Houston-Downtown’s (UHD) 50th anniversary.
Joining him on stage will be his own band, The E-Collective, plus student musicians from the UH Moores School of Music.
Slated for 7 p.m. on 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, Houston, 77004) with the sounds of Blanchard’s unforgettable jazz stylings. Blanchard has created powerful soundtracks for more than 60 films including “The Woman King” and multiple Spike Lee movies including “Malcolm X” and “Mo Better Blues.”
Both UHD President Blanchard and his cousin, the icon jazz trumpeter, will have an intimate public conversation during which they will discuss Terence’s groundbreaking career as a jazz trumpeter and composer of opera and more than 75 scores for film and television while reminiscing about the past and sharing family stories.
Slated for 11 a.m., Friday, Nov. 8, “A Conversation with Terence Blanchard” is part of the 2024 Fall President’s Lecture Series and will be held in the TDECU Tour Room in the Welcome Center of UHD, 201 Girard. KTSU 90.9 General Manager Ernest Walker will join the two cousins on stage and moderate the conversation. The event is free and open to the public with a complimentary lunch provided and RSVP required.
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Dr. Loren Blanchard. Credit: Colt Melrose Photography.
The Defender spoke with UHD’s president, Dr. Loren Blanchard, about the upcoming performance by his cousin.
Defender: Can you speak to the excitement of this upcoming event?
Blanchard: We’re celebrating all year long, our 50th year anniversary. We’ve done a number of different events to highlight and underscore the importance of the work that we do here at UHD. Performing Arts is in the area that is of special meaning to us within our campus. And where we’re located here in Houston, we’re right within the Performing Arts District. So, to close out our 50th year anniversary, we are hosting Terence Blanchard, the Grammy Award-winning, Oscar nominated musician, who will be coming and conducting a concert for us. It’s a fundraising concert that’s going be designed to help us to raise dollars for need-based scholarships, as well as emergency grants for our students. So, we’re really excited to have Terence to come to perform. And the beautiful part about it is that he’ll be performing with our student symphony at the University of Houston Main Campus. So, we’re going to have about 80 students who will be serving as his orchestra along with his own band members. You can only imagine the beautiful sound that we can expect on this upcoming Saturday.
Defender: How were you all able to secure such a legend? Was it because you two have the same last name?
Blanchard: Well, I would hope that that would’ve been the case. But we actually have been working to get Terence here for over a year. Because, first of all, he’s no stranger to Houston. As a matter of fact, he was just here last November. It was a performance that focused on his opera productions. And this one is different that he’ll be performing for us. Because, the orchestra, it will be a focus on his music tied in with movies. Terence has written musical scores for over 60 movies. It’ll be an opportunity for us to kind of walk down memory lane with him. And, he’s forever a jazz musician, as you well know. And he’ll also complement that orchestra music with some performances that he will do as well, using his trumpet. Terence and I are second cousins. He grew up in New Orleans. I grew up in Lake Charles. Our families would come together occasionally for family reunions. I also lived in New Orleans as I grew into adulthood for 25 years. That’s where we became much closer and I really got a chance to experience the real musical genius that he is.
What are you most looking forward to, regarding this upcoming event?
Blanchard: First of all, this is a fundraiser. So, we obviously want to be able to raise the funds. But for our students, it’s also about really exposing our greater community to what music can do, and how our students, some of them who are music majors or have concentrations in music, could see that music isn’t just a one-stop kind of profession. You can move and transform yourself in so many different ways through the instrumental or the vocal genres. Terence is a living example of that. It also speaks of just how the music transcends so many different things; culture, mindsets. It brings you to a place where you feel a sense of unity, because we’re all experiencing the same kind of music that feels quite transformational. That’s what Terrence does.
For tickets, visit uhd.edu/50yearsconcert.
