Herbie Hancock
Adjunct Professor; LA Phil Guest Artist, Music Performance Jazz

Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz

Chairman Herbie Hancock was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Goodwill Ambassador in July 2011. At a ceremony in Paris, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said the designation recognizes Hancock’s “dedication to the promotion of peace through dialogue, culture and the arts.”

Bokova selected Hancock to contribute to UNESCO’s efforts to promote mutual understanding among cultures, with a particular emphasis on fostering the emergence of new, creative ideas among youth, finding solutions to global problems, and ensuring equal access to the diversity of artistic expressions.

Herbie Hancock serves as Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, supporting all aspects of the organization’s work. He has led dozens of national and international Institute tours that have introduced millions of people around the world to jazz and its rich cultural heritage. Hancock has served numerous times on the judging panel for the Hancock International Jazz Piano Competition and co-hosts this event each year.

Additionally, Hancock serves on the audition committee that selects the world’s most promising young jazz artists for participation in the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance, the Institute’s full-scholarship college program. As an Artist-in-Residence at the college program, Hancock has passed along his knowledge to a younger generation of jazz musicians that will carry the music forward. Hancock helped develop Jazz in America: The National Jazz Curriculum, the Institute’s free, online jazz history curricula for students in 5th, 8th and 11th grades, and narrates the 5th grade animated lesson plans available at www.jazzinamerica.org.

Fourteen-time GRAMMY Award winner Herbie Hancock is a jazz icon who has been an integral part of every jazz movement since his arrival on the scene in the ’60s. The internationally renowned pianist and composer was born in Chicago and began playing piano at age 7. At age 11, he performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He later attended Grinnell College, where he double majored in music and engineering.

When he was 20 years old, Hancock was invited by Donald Byrd to join his band and encouraged by Byrd to move to New York. Byrd later helped him secure a recording contract with Blue Note Records. Hancock’s debut album, Takin’ Off, included “Watermelon Man,” the first of many top ten hits. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, Hancock became one of the pioneers of modern jazz improvisation. His musical innovations during this period are studied by jazz musicians the world over. Hancock’s recordings during the ’70s combined electric jazz with funk and rock sounds in an innovative style that influenced a whole decade of music. In 1983, “Rockit,” from the platinum-selling Future Shock album, won Hancock a GRAMMY for Best R&B Instrumental and became an anthem in the world of break dancing and early hip-hop culture.

The “Rockit” video and Hancock’s performance at the GRAMMY Awards have been cited by many major hip-hop deejays as their original inspiration for pursuing their art. Hancock’s music has been sampled and reused on dozens of hip-hop and dance classics including US3’s “Canteloop Island” and Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is in The Heart.” His compositions including “Watermelon Man”, “Chameleon,” and “Maiden Voyage” are considered classics in the world of jazz and beyond. Hancock received the 1987 Oscar Award for Best Score, honoring his work on Round Midnight. In 2007, Hancock’s CD River: The Joni Letters won the GRAMMY Award for Album of the Year, making Hancock the first jazz musician to receive this honor in 44 years. His latest release is The Imagine Project, which was recorded all around the world with a variety of artists including India.Arie, Los Lobos, and Seal. Herbie Hancock continues to be a major creative force in jazz and a trailblazer in the world of music.

Adam Gilberti
Lecturer--Music Education/Woodwinds
Victoria Kirsch
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
Antonio Lysy
Professor - Cello Performance and Strings Area Head
James Bass
Professor - Director of Choral Studies
Arturo O’Farrill
Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Professor
Joshua Ranz
Lecturer - Clarinet Performance
Lucy Yates
Lecturer - Vocal Diction, Vocal Coaching
Che-Yen Chen
Professor - Viola Performance
Vladimir Chernov
Distinguished Professor - Voice Performance
Gloria Cheng
Adjunct Professor - Contemporary Music, Performance Studies
Chris Hanulik
Adjunct Professor - String Bass Performance; Principal Bass LA Phil
Wendy Caldwell
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
Alison Deane
Associate Adjunct Professor
Iris Malkin
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
Travis J. Cross
Chair of Music; Professor
Michael Dean
Professor, Voice Performance
Ian Krouse
Distinguished Professor
James Miller
Lecturer - Trombone Performance; Associate Principal Trombone LA Phil
Peter Yates
Adjunct Professor - Guitar Performance
Theresa Dimond
Lecturer - Percussion Performance
Inna Faliks
Professor - Head of Piano
Gregory Goodall
Lecturer - Percussion Performance
Aubrey Foard
Lecturer - Tuba Performance
Boris Allakhverdyan
Lecturer - Clarinet Performance; Principal Clarinet LA Phil
Rakefet Hak
Lecturer - Music Director of the UCLA Opera Workshop
Cheryl Lin Fielding
Lecturer - Vocal Diction, Vocal Coaching
William Kinderman
Professor -- Elaine Krown Klein Chair in Performance Studies
Varty Manouelian
Lecturer - Violin Performance; Violin LA Phil
John Steinmetz
Lecturer - Bassoon Performance
David Kaplan
Assistant Professor - Piano Performance
Ji Young An
Lecturer - Violin Performance
Denis Bouriakov
Lecturer - Flute Performance; Principal Flute LA Phil
Movses Pogossian
Distinguished Professor, Director of Armenian Music Program
Jonathan Davis
Lecturer - Oboe Performance
Lou Anne Neill
Lecturer - Harp Performance; Harp LA Phil
Maria Fortuna Dean
Lecturer - Voice Performance
Jens Lindemann
Distinguished Professor - Trumpet Performance and Brass Area Head
Juliana Gondek
Distinguished Professor, Voice Performance
Jocelyn Ho
Assistant Professor - Performance Studies
Christoph Bull
Adjunct Professor - Organ Performance
Kay Rhie
Assistant Professor
Lily Chen-Hafteck
Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for curricular reform; Professor
Erin Bouriakov
Lecturer - Flute Performance
Peter Kazaras
Distinguished Professor - Director of Opera UCLA
Amy Sanchez
Lecturer - Horn Performance
Johanna Gamboa-Kroesen
Assistant Professor--Music Education

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