DSO's Paradise Jazz Series presents Terence Blanchard's A Tale Of God’s Will: A Requiem For Katrina, January 31

Blanchard commemorates 20 years since Hurricane Katrina with tour of updated GRAMMY Award-winning work: an evening-length, emotional tour-de-force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy, and beauty

Tickets on sale now at dso.org

Detroit, (January 16, 2025) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair Terence Blanchard, his band the E-Collective, and the Turtle Island Quartet will perform Terence Blanchard: A Tale of God's Will on Friday, January 31 at 8 p.m. at Orchestra Hall.

A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina is a GRAMMY Award-winning work composed by Blanchard, a New Orleans native. Written in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Blanchard sonically explored the aftermath of this natural disaster, drawing upon stories shared by those affected and his personal connection to the city.

20 years later, Blanchard is touring this work to commemorate all the events surrounding Katrina and how the great crescent city overcame this adversity. For this updated version of the song cycle, Blanchard has added new arrangements with his band the E-collective, along with the two-time GRAMMY Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet, to create a tapestry that captures the destruction of the hurricane and redemption of the great city of New Orleans following the disaster.

Tickets for this performance starts at $20 and can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Prior to the Terence Blanchard performance in Orchestra Hall on January 31, the Civic Jazz Orchestra, part of the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles, will give an opening performance in the Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube (The Cube) at 7 p.m., directed by Vincent Chandler. Click here to purchase tickets.

Currently in its 26th season, the Paradise Jazz Series is named for and honors the legacy of the Paradise Theatre, the historic Detroit jazz venue that was on the site of Orchestra Hall from 1941–1951. The DSO is one of few major American orchestras to present regular jazz programming on its main stage. Learn more about the series at dso.org/jazz.

The Paradise Jazz Series is supported by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Huntington, MGM Grand Detroit, and DownBeat Magazine.

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Paradise Jazz Series

Friday, January 31 at 8 p.m.

Orchestra Hall

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans native son Terence Blanchard created an impassioned, GRAMMY Award-winning work: A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina. This updated work is an evening-length, emotional tour-de-force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy, and beauty.

20 years later, Blanchard is touring this work to commemorate all the events surrounding Katrina and how the great crescent city overcame this adversity. For this updated version of the song cycle, Blanchard has added new arrangements with his band the E-collective, along with the double Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet, to create a tapestry that captures the destruction of the hurricane and redemption of the great city of New Orleans following the disaster.

"After being paired back for Turtle Island Quartet, Blanchard’s writing hits more starkly." -The New York Times

Please note: Program duration and the inclusion of an intermission are subject to change depending on the program.

 

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About Terence Blanchard

Two-time Oscar nominee and seven-time GRAMMY Award winner 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 almost 20 Spike Lee projects over three decades, ranging from the documentary When the Levees Broke to the latest Lee film, Da 5 Bloods, Blanchard has interwoven beautiful melodies that created strong backdrops to human stories. Blanchard received an Oscar nomination for his original score for Da 5 Bloods in 2021, which marked his second nomination. Blanchard previously received an Oscar nomination for his original score for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Blanchard becomes only the second Black composer to be nominated twice in the original score category, duplicating Quincy Jones’s feat from 1967’s In Cold Blood and 1985’s The Color Purple.

For One Night in Miami, which marked Regina King’s feature directorial debut and premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, the Academy Award-winning actress tapped the talents of Blanchard as did Gaz Alazraki, the director of Father of the Bride which debuted on HBO Max. Some of Blanchard’s other film and television credits include Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, 25th Hour, and Inside Man; Kasi Lemmons’s films Eve’s Bayou and Harriet; George Lucas’s Red Tails; the critically acclaimed drama series Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys with episodes directed by Tim Van Patten which debuted on HBO in June 2020, the National Geographic limited series Genius: Aretha which premiered in March 2021, HBO’s NYC Epicenters 9/11—2021 ½ documentary miniseries produced and directed by Spike Lee which premiered in August 2021, the Apple TV+ series Swagger which debuted in October 2021, and Apple TV’s docuseries They Call Me Magic which debuted on April 22, 2022 and for which Blanchard received his second Emmy nomination.

More recently, Blanchard wrote the original score for The Woman King directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood starring Viola Davis which premiered on September 16, 2022. Blanchard also arranged and produced songs for the upcoming feature A Jazzman’s Blues written, directed, and produced by Tyler Perry. In addition, Blanchard wrote the original score for the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues directed by Sacha Jenkins and produced by Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer's Imagine Documentaries, released in September during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Blanchard has 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 June 2019. The New York Times has called Blanchard’s opera “inspiring,” “subtly powerful” and “a bold affecting adaptation of Charles Blow’s work.” The Metropolitan Opera premiered Fire Shut Up in My Bones on September 27, 2021 to open their 2021–22 season in New York, 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. Champion was staged at the Met in April 2023, followed up a restaging of Fire Shut Up in My Bones in May 2024 due to record-setting box office & huge critical acclaim.

With his current jazz quintet, The E-Collective, featured on the score to BlacKkKlansman with a 96-piece orchestra, Blanchard delivered “a soaring, seething, luxuriant score” (The New York Times). In Vice Magazine, Blanchard elaborates, “In BlacKkKlansman 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." In his thirtieth year as a recording leader, Blanchard delivers Absence, a masterwork of sonic zest in collaboration with his longtime E-Collective band and the acclaimed Turtle Island Quartet which received GRAMMY Award nominations in November 2021 for Best Instrumental Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Blanchard in 2022. It may seem like an irregular pairing, but Blanchard discovered that the quartet proved a perfect fit. “Obviously I’ve worked with strings in my career,” he says. “But Turtle Island has reimagined the language for the string quartet. It’s extremely unique, and what they do is brilliant. Playing together, it’s like a chamber jazz ensemble.”

 

Regarding his consistent attachment to artistic works of conscience, Blanchard confesses “You get to a certain age when you ask, ‘Who’s going to stand up and speak out for us?’ Then you look around and realize that the James Baldwins, Muhammad Alis and Dr. Kings are no longer here...and begin to understand that it falls on you. I’m not trying to say I’m here to try to correct the whole thing, I’m just trying to speak the truth.” In that regard, he cites unimpeachable inspirations. “Max Roach with his ‘Freedom Now Suite,’ John Coltrane playing ‘Alabama,’ even Louis Armstrong talking about what was going on with his people any time he was interviewed. Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter who live by their Buddhist philosophy and try to expand the conscience of their communities. I’m standing on all their shoulders. How dare I come through this life having had the blessing of meeting those men and not take away any of that? Like anybody else, I’d like to play feel good party music but sometimes my music is about the reality of where we are.”

About the DSO

The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a performance schedule that features the PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in metro area venues, as well as eclectic multi-genre performances in its mid-size venue The Cube, constructed and curated with support from Peter D. & Julie F. Cummings. A dedication to broadcast innovation began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.

Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.