photo by: Courtesy of Lied Center of Kansas

Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, left, and Lawrence music educator Melissa Smith have been named as Lied Center IMPACT Award winners.

The Lied Center of Kansas has named Terence Blanchard, a Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer, and Melissa Smith, a music educator in the Lawrence school district, as the 2023-24 season’s IMPACT Award recipients.

Each season, the Lied Center recognizes one artist or group for distinguished service to the performing arts and one Lawrence educator for distinguished service to arts education.

The IMPACT Awards will be presented on Nov. 2 at Blanchard’s “Film Scores Live!” performance at the Lied Center.

“Melissa Smith is truly an unsung hero in our community’s music education circles,” said Derek Kwan, Lied Center executive director, in a news release Thursday. “From jazz to film scoring and opera, there is not a current artist who is more versatile and impactful than Terence Blanchard.”

Blanchard is a seven-time Grammy winner and twice Oscar-nominated film composer. He is the newly appointed SFJAZZ executive artistic director. His major scores include “BlacKkKlansman,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “Eve’s Bayou,” “Harriet” and “The Woman King.” He was nominated for a best-score Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods.” One of his operas, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” opened New York’s Metropolitan Opera House’s 2021-22 season, the first time an opera by an African American composer was performed on the Met’s stage in its 136-year history. As an educator, Blanchard was recognized in 2019 as the Kenny Burrell Chair in jazz studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, among his other credentials.

Smith, now in her 32nd year in music education, came to Lawrence from Boone High School in Boone, Iowa, where she was the director of bands for 10 years. Before that, Smith directed bands in Moody, Texas; served as assistant director of bands, director of orchestras, and managed the winter drumline and color guards at her alma mater in Danville, Illinois; and began her teaching career in Highland, Illinois. Bands, ensembles and students have received many accolades under her direction. She is also currently the color guard instructor for the Marching Jayhawks at the University of Kansas and for the Marching Firebirds at Lawrence Free State High School. As an accomplished oboist, Smith is currently a member of the Lawrence Community Orchestra and Crossroad Symphony Wind Ensemble. She has been a longtime advocate of the Lied Center and the performing arts in education.

Tickets for Blanchard’s “Film Scores Live!” can be purchased at lied.ku.edu or the Lied Center Ticket Office. The performance will feature Blanchard playing his movie music along with his ensemble, the E-Collective, and the Lawrence Community Orchestra.

In conjunction with “Film Scores Live!,” the Lied Center will host a free, public conversation with Blanchard and Oscar-winner Kevin Willmott on Nov. 1 at 4 p.m.