NEW ORLEANS— New Orleans composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard was nominated for an Oscar this year and won his 6th Grammy Award.
It turns out that was just the start of all the great things he’s got going on, including two films and an opera.
On the New Orleans musical documentary ‘Up From the Streets’ Blanchard says, “Up From the Streets” is something I’m really proud of because it goes to the core of who I am and who we all are in this city. When Michael Murphy and Cilista (Eberle) came to Robin and myself about being producers of the project, I jumped at the chance. When I think about what this city has offered the world. It’s amazing, but when I think about what it’s done for me in my life I’m grateful.”
Blanchard was named the first African American to have a piece at the Metropolitan Opera for ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones‘.
For Blanchard, this is a personal achievement, “Growing up here, I grew up with a father who loved opera, and it’s come full circle because when I was a kid I used to be ashamed of my father sitting at the piano singing opera when my boys would come over, but the thing that I’ve come to realize is those were very very we rounded African American men in this community.”
As it relates to the Harriet Tubman film Blanchard said, “I’ve been saying that it’s a true honor to have my name in the realm of her greatness. When I look at what she has done for this country and the world I’ve been saying it that she’s the embodiment of it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog”
