Q&A with Composer

TERENCE BLANCHARD

Moderated by SCL President ASHLEY IRWIN

Screening Link provided with Registration Confirmation

YouTube Live Stream Q&A

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6 – 6:30pm PT

From Academy Award® Winner Spike Lee comes a New Joint: the story of four African-American Vets — Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) — who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader (Chadwick Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes, joined by Paul’s concerned son (Jonathan Majors), battle forces of Man and Nature — while confronted by the lasting ravages of The Immorality of The Vietnam War. R | 154mins

Trumpeter/composer, Oscar nominee, six-time Grammy-winner and 2018 USA Fellow Terence Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present. From his expansive work composing the scores for Spike Lee films ranging from the documentaryWhen the Levees Broke (about Blanchard’s hometown of New Orleans during the devastation from Hurricane Katrina) to the epicMalcolm X; and the latest Lee film,Da 5 Bloods, Blanchard has interwoven melodies that created strong backdrops to human stories. More recently, Blanchard composed his second opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the memoir of celebrated writer and The New York Times columnist Charles Blow. The libretto was written by Kasi Lemmons and commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where it premiered in 2019. The New York Times has called it “inspiring,” “subtly powerful” and “a bold affecting adaptation of Charles Blow’s work.” The Metropolitan Opera will premiereFire Shut Up in My Boneson September 27, 2021, making it the first opera composed by an African American composer to premiere at the Met. Blanchard’s first opera, Champion also premiered to critical acclaim in 2013 at OTSL and starred Denyce Graves with a libretto from Pulitzer Prize Winner, Michael Cristofer.

With his current quintet The E-Collective, featured on the score toBlacKkKlansmanwith a 96-piece orchestra, Blanchard delivered “a soaring, seething, luxuriant score,” The New York Times. In Vice Magazine, Blanchard elaborates, “InBlacKkKlansman it all became real to me. You feel the level of intolerance that exists for people who ignore other people’s pain. Musically, I can’t ignore that. I can’t add to that intolerance. Instead, I have to help people heal from it.” Some of Blanchard’s other film credits includeJungle Fever, 25th Hour, Inside Man, Eve’s Bayou, Harriet, Red Tails, Barbershop, and One Night in Miami, and for television the critically acclaimed drama series Perry Mason.

Terence was honored as an SCL Ambassador at the annual New York Holiday Party on December 11, 2018. 

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Wednesday, January 6, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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