Jazz Great Terence Blanchard to Curate Cleveland Orchestra’s Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival

In Wednesday’s (1/7) Cleveland.com, Zachary Lewis writes, “There’s an uncommonly brilliant man behind the curtain at the Cleveland Orchestra’s Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival this year. On Wednesday, the orchestra announced that trumpeter-composer and jazz icon Terence Blanchard will curate the 2026 event, which runs May 15 to 24 and explores the theme of courage as depicted in ‘Fidelio,’ Beethoven’s opera about a woman who rescues her husband from political imprisonment…. Blanchard said the 2026 festival ‘gives us the opportunity to use a range of musical and artistic experiences to explore who we are as human beings, who we need to be moving forward, and how we can reconnect with our shared humanity.’ Blanchard is uniquely qualified to preside over such a grand enterprise. He’s been a sought-after jazz trumpeter and cultural bridge-builder for more than four decades and has enjoyed remarkable success as a composer and recording artist. He’s collaborated with giants in his field, written or performed on the soundtracks to several key films, and penned the first opera by a Black composer (‘Fire Shut Up In My Bones’) at the Metropolitan Opera. Several of his projects have won or were nominated for Grammy Awards…. The complete lineup will be announced in March.”