“Behind the Scenes” by Maestro Eckerling

Our upcoming season is right around the ­corner, and I’m getting excited. I hope you all are too. Since this year the City of Evanston is celebrating their 150th Anniversary, we knew that we wanted to kick off our season with a celebratory concert honoring the City of Evanston. So I thought it important while programming this concert to include as many ­connections with Evanston as possible.

Approximately a year ago, in planning for the Evanston Symphony’s five minute “Backstage Evanston” presentation, I was looking for a second brass fanfare to play as a companion to the Dukas Fanfare to La Peri. When I put inquiries out, there didn’t seem to be a work available with the same instrumentation that was only about two minutes long. But then, Atlanta based composer Mark Gresham ­volunteered to compose something for the occasion, and titled it “Evanston Fanfare.” We did perform this wonderful fanfare at Backstage Evanston for a very small audience. But I thought it important to perform it on a subscription concert since it was composed for us, and because it bears our city’s name. Therefore this will be its official world ­concert premiere.

Another work on our concert is Saint-Saëns’ beloved ­Carnival of the Animals, which requires two pianos. I was able to engage twin pianists, Ryan and Kyle Jannak-Huang, who have obtained the majority of their training at the Music Institute of Chicago, which is actually headquartered in Evanston! And we have invited Toni-Marie Montgomery, Dean of the Bienen School of Music at Evanston’s prized educational institution Northwestern University, to read the witty Ogden Nash verses as part of the performance.

We also will be performing Offenbach’s Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld. It ends with the familiar and rousing “Can-Can.” (And be on the lookout for hearing the “Can Can” as the part of the Carnival of the Animals ­representing the tortoises. The fastest music played at the rate of the slowest turtle crawl)!

The final two works on our program are both audience pleasers that honor the commitment of the musicians of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. Both Ravel’s Bolero and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition contain numerous solos, which will highlight many members of the ESO.

I’m looking forward to seeing you on November 10th!

—Lawrence Eckerling
Music Director, Evanston Symphony Orchestra