HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Carolyn Kuan, Music Director

FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES

Thursday, April 24, 2025/ 8:00 p.m.
Mortensen Hall, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts

Terence Blanchard, trumpet & composer
The E-Collective
Andrew F. Scott & Matthew Unkenholz, video projections
Carolyn Kuan, conductor
Janinah Burnett, soprano
Will Liverman, baritone

† created from films scored by Terence Blanchard
‡ Eleven (11) arias & excerpts from the Opera by Terence Blanchard

About: Terence Blanchard and his band The E-Collective have teamed up with visual artist Andrew F. Scott to create a new live concert experience with orchestra that features excerpts from Blanchard’s groundbreaking Opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones performed by the composer’s own incredible ensemble, Janinah Burnett and Will Liverman. The music and Scott’s video projections give the audience a look inside the mind of Blanchard, and the gravitational pull of the moment that he has created. To round out this program, Blanchard, his band and Scott will perform excerpts from three of Blanchard’s award-winning scores for three major motion pictures—Malcolm X, Harriet, and his Oscar-nominated score for Blackkklansman.

This production premiered at Dallas Symphony in February 2023

Concert Sponsors:
Eversource, Fairview Capital, Trinity Health, The Katharine K. McLane & Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust, Paula Silas Guy & John Guy, Greater Hartford Arts Council, The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, The Legacy Foundation, Hartford Healthcare, Floyd Green, The Cloud Company LLC. 

In September 2021, after The Metropolitan Opera had been shuttered for over a year, the world-renowned institution opened its season with the first work in its 138 years written by an African American composer— TERENCE BLANCHARD’s masterpiece Fire Shut Up In My Bones.

The production, which was a remount of the premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2019, was performed eight (8) times for almost 30,000 people, not to mention the hundreds of thousands that watched The MET: LIVE in HD in theaters all over the world. To bring this full circle, in December 2022, Peter Gelb announced that his world-renowned company would be staging Fire Shut Up In My Bones again in the 2023-2024 season due to its unparalleled success.

This work has surpassed the realm of masterpiece and entered that of a new cultural paradigm. The overarching theme of this new moment is that opera and classical music are for EVERYONE.  In an effort to continue the positive radiance of this new movement, Blanchard and The E-Collective have teamed up with visual artist Andrew F. Scott to distill a concert production for orchestra that features excerpts from the opera performed by the composer’s own incredible ensemble and two (2) guest singers. The music and Scott’s video projections give the audience a look inside the mind of Blanchard, and the gravitational pull of the moment that he has created. This production premiered at Dallas Symphony in February 2023. The Opera portion of this program is 50 minutes total and does not include Mr. Blanchard as a performer.

With over 75 credits to his name to date, Terence Blanchard is a true titan in the world of Film & Television. His major scores include Spike Lee Joints such as Blackkklansman, Da 5 Bloods, Mo Better Blues and 25th Hour, Kasi Lemmons films such as Eve's Bayou and Harriet, along with scores for Regina King (One Night In Miami) George Lucas (Red Tails) and Gina Prince (The Woman King). 

Film Scores LIVE! showcases the stunning scores and songs from several films, featuring Blanchard’s band, and full orchestra— instrumentation varies depending on the venue. Previous presentations of Blanchard's Film Music have included engagements at Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Hollywood Bowl, and many other legacy symphonic halls around the globe. Still images created by Andrew F. Scott & Matt Unkenholz from these films are featured alongside these larger-than-life scores to give the audience a look inside the mind of a genius. 

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