Lincoln Center Kicks Off Year-Long Celebration Of Multi-Talented Musician Terence Blanchard

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts—the home of many New York arts organizations—has kicked off See Me As I Am, a year-long celebration of the multi-talented musician Terence Blanchard.

It is Lincoln Center’s first cross-campus exploration of one artist.

Arts organizations across Lincoln Center’s campus—including Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts— will feature Blanchard’s jazz, chamber and orchestral music, opera and film scores, among other works, during the celebration.

Calling Blanchard “an esteemed trumpeter, performer, composer and music educator,” Lincoln Center said, “Blanchard has been a pioneering artistic force throughout his career. As a prolific film composer, he has scored dozens of feature films, including several major collaborations with director Spike Lee. Most recently at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera premiered his opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which opened (its) 2021-22 season, marking the first opera by a Black composer” to debut here.

The Metropolitan Opera will present the New York premiere of Blanchard’s first opera, the 2013 Champion, based on the story of boxer Emile Griffith, from April 10 to May 13.