If you missed trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard’s concerts earlier this year at the Meyerson Symphony Center, you’re in luck. The PBS show Terence Blanchard in Dallas premieres Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 8 p.m. on KERA TV and repeats Sept. 8 at 11 p.m. and Sept. 10 at noon.
The hourlong program is a mash-up of two February concerts. The first featured the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in the first orchestra performances of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. The opera — based on columnist Charles M. Blow’s memoir about sexual identity and betrayal — was the first work by a Black composer to be staged by the Metropolitan Opera of New York.
The second Dallas concert starred Blanchard with his E-Collective jazz band performing alongside the Turtle Island String Quartet. The PBS show also includes interviews with Blanchard and other musicians.
In February, the New Orleans-raised Blanchard told The Dallas Morning News he’s trying to erase opera’s fusty image and attract new fans.
“I try to tell people it’s musical theater at its highest form, and I try to take it out of the realm of opera. ‘Opera’ is a buzzword, just like ‘jazz,’ where people hear them and think of negative stereotypes. I’m trying to demystify those stereotypes.”
After its Dallas premiere, KERA will distribute the program to PBS stations around the U.S.