Musician and composer Terence Blanchard is a two-time Academy Award nominee for his work with Spike Lee, and a seven-time Grammy winner for his jazz albums and soundtracks. He's played trumpet and piano with Lionel Hampton as well as Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and has recently composed two operas, Champion and Fire Shut Up in My Bones. His current project, in collaboration with the E-Collective band and the Turtle Island String Quartet, is called Absence.
Conducting a one-night-only perfomance of Absence in Portland is Damien Geter, a conductor, singer, and composer in his own right who is currently serving as Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera.
Terence and Damien sit down with S.W. Conser to talk about collaboration, representation, and today's young composers, performers, and choreographers who are changing the face of opera.
- KBOO