125 Moments: 046 Herbie Hancock

Eleven-year-old Herbie Hancock — a seventh-grade student at the Forestville School, located in the Kenwood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side — was a CSO Youth Auditions winner, and he appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on a Young People’s Concert at Orchestra Hall on February 5, 1952. He performed the first movement (Allegro) from Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 26 in D major, K. 537 (Coronation) under the baton of George Schick, the Orchestra’s assistant conductor.

In the years since, Hancock — the winner of multiple Grammy awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement) and a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors in 2013 — has appeared at Orchestra Hall on numerous occasions with a variety of artists.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 125 Moments was created to celebrate the ensemble’s 125th season in 2015-16 and gathered significant events, illustrated with imagery and artifacts from the collections of the Rosenthal Archives.

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