Chicago will host the 15th annual International Jazz Day in April, bringing the event to the city where Herbie Hancock, the renowned pianist and founder of the initiative, grew up. The month-long celebration will include workshops, educational programs for youth, community events, and performances across Chicago.
The event will conclude with an All-Star Global Concert at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Organizers stated that this year’s concert is expected to be “the largest and most ambitious in Jazz Day history, with more than 40 artists from across the globe already confirmed.” Last year’s concert in Abu Dhabi was viewed by over 250 million people worldwide, according to Tom Carter, president of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.
The program will feature international and local artists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, James Carter, Jacob Collier, Renée Fleming, Christian McBride, Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, Jahari Stampley and Lizz Wright.
Since its launch in New Orleans and its official adoption by UNESCO in 2011 through a unanimous United Nations vote, International Jazz Day has been celebrated around the world. Past host cities include New York City; Istanbul; Osaka; Paris; Washington D.C.; Havana; St. Petersburg; Sydney and Melbourne; Tangier; and Abu Dhabi.
At a press conference on Tuesday at the Chicago Cultural Center attended by Mayor Brandon Johnson, Governor JB Pritzker and Kenya Merritt—acting commissioner for Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events—Carter said Pritzker played a key role in securing Chicago as this year’s host city. He recounted how Pritzker contacted him while he was at an airport in Abu Dhabi to advocate for bringing Jazz Day to Chicago.
“This is going to be just an incredible celebration of an art form that helped shape America’s cultural heartbeat and found one of its greatest homes right here,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “Our city’s depth of culture, its talent, brought many of the greats here to perform. They made their names here, they transformed the genre. From Chicago legends like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Cab Calloway … and of course the great Herbie Hancock, jazz runs deep around here.”
Herbie Hancock sent a video message from Los Angeles reflecting on his time as a student at Hyde Park Academy: “I’m deeply excited and profoundly moved that UNESCO has selected my hometown as a global host city for International Jazz Day 2026,” Hancock said. “It was at my high school, Hyde Park Academy, that I first discovered jazz. I was sitting in an auditorium watching a talent show, and then something clicked for me…Jazz opened doors for me to creativity…and freedom…that is exactly why we celebrate International Jazz Day.”
Organizers announced plans for a special event at Hyde Park Academy honoring Hancock’s beginnings: “So we’re going to do something very special at Hyde Park for the students,” Carter said. “Herbie is going to bring people from all over the world to his high school…to share with young people the belief that all it takes is one moment in time to change the world.”
Hancock added: “This really is a dream come true…Everything I’ve done musically is rooted in that early discovery of jazz…My hope is that International Jazz Day 2026 will inspire young artists and audiences the same way the city inspired me.”
