• Announcing Our 2023–2024 Season

    Feel The Passion

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    and get the best seats

    *mail or phone orders only; online sales start 9/1.

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    Subscribe at Early Bird prices through June 20.

  • LAKESIDE POPS CONCERT

    Free Admission

    Thursday, August 17, 2023
    6:30–7:30 PM
    Wallace Bowl, Gillson Park
    Wilmette

    Sponsored by Optima Verdana

    FREE!

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  • ESO’s
    Share The Stage

    Share the Stage lets you sponsor a chair in the Orchestra. It’s our way of recognizing that the ESO Community is made up of Orchestra Members and Supporters.

2023–2024 SERIES: Feel The Passion

Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

May 30, Friday, at 1:30 pm

Enhance your concert experience with a sneak preview — Composers come alive and their passions take center stage when ESO Maestro Lawrence Eckerling take you on an insider’s tour of the history and highlights behind the music.

Meet our soloist, Steven Banks, at Musical Insights. He and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the concert program in depth.

The Merion
Friday, May 30 at 1:30 pm,
Merion's Crystal Ballroom at
529 Davis St, Evanston.
FREE and open to the public.
Please RSVP to 847-570-7815.

Light refreshments will be served and casual tours of apartments will be available after the program.

Give the gift of music

Treat a friend or relative to the ESO

Give the gift of music by ordering directly from our website and purchasing a custom gift certificate in any denomination of your choice! Certificates may be redeemed for single ticket or season subscriptions for any of our concerts.

You will receive an electronic gift certificate or we can mail the certificate to you or directly to the recipient.

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Health & Safety

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra strongly recommends the proper wearing of masks at all times for audiences including while in line to enter, when in close proximity to others, and throughout the performance. At this time, masks are optional at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and at The Merion during Musical Highlights events. Guidelines may change in accordance with public health recommendations, so please check back here and pre-performance reminders for updates. Proof of vaccination is currently not required for audience members, Please note that all staff and artists are fully vaccinated.

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In Memoriam: David Ellis

David Ellis in 2012, receiving an award

With sad and heavy hearts, on August 1st the Evanston Symphony announced that David Ellis, the ESO’s General Manager, passed away on July 26, 2022, following heart complications. Our sympathy and care continue to go out to Marcia, his wife, and their sons, Michael, Matthew, and Peter, for the depth and pain of their loss.

David was our General Manager for 18 years. He knew all of our musicians and all of our patrons, including their seat numbers! His knowledge of classical music was second to none and his love of this music was always appreciated at our Musical Insights lectures.

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Let Your Spirit Soar

When you hear the Evanston Symphony play Pictures at an Exhibition, you will experience the beauty and originality of the paintings of Russian artist Viktor Hartmann (1834–1873) as interpreted by his good friend and composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). The piece will take you on a stroll through a late 19th-century gallery at St. Petersburg’s Imperial Academy of the Arts.

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Passionate Expression

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was a French composer of the romantic era best known for his piece Symphonie Fantastique. In 1843, Berlioz wrote Roman Carnival Overture, reworked from his 1838 opera Benvenuto Cellini. While the opera was decidedly unpopular, his overture was an immense success and became an independent concert piece. Berlioz said of his compositions “the prevailing characteristics of my music are passionate expression, rhythmic animation, and unexpected turns.”

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A Change of Heart

The Russian Romantic composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor over a span of four months between 1874 and 1875. He wanted his colleague Nikolai Rubinstein to play the piece for its premiere; however, Rubinstein did not like the piece and refused to play it unless it was heavily edited. Tchaikovsky did not want to make any significant changes to his work, so he reached out to Hans von Bülow instead. The German pianist not only liked the composer’s music, but Tchaikovsky enjoyed von Bülow’s concert performances in Moscow.

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