Sounds of the season rang throughout Symphony Center on a busy Thursday. Before the music ensued, the day began with news that Pierre Boulez, the CSO’s longtime Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, had been named as a 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, joining this year’s fellow honorees Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Wayne Shorter, Flaco Jiménez, the Bee-Gees and the Louvin Brothers.

Then, along with a sold-out performance of the CSO Brass in its annual holiday concert, the hall welcomed musicians of the annual Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, and for a yuletide reception at Club 8, members of the CSO Latino Alliance.

This day of holiday cheer ended with a CSO subscription concert of 20th-century works, led by guest conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, and featuring Cynthia Yeh, principal percussionist, in the concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. In his review, Chicago Tribune classical music critic John von Rhein called the concerto “a colorful, wildly exhilarating thrill-ride of a piece,” while on his Chicago Classical Review site, critic Lawrence A. Johnson wrote, “Prieto led a superb performance notable for transparency and keeping grasp of the overall architecture.”

To see more photos of the day’s merriment, click on the red VIEW GALLERY tab above.

PHOTO: Members of the CSO Brass take a bow during their annual holiday concert at Symphony Center. | © Todd Rosenberg Photography 2014