The Evanston Symphony Orchestra (ESO) has adopted protocols to protect your health and safety at performances. These policies are in effect as of September 2021 for 2021-2022 ESO subscription series concerts and will be reviewed regularly to follow the latest public health mandates and recommendations.
Proof of Vaccination Required •
Mask Requirement
• Distancing
•Risk Assumption
• Exchange Policy
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.
Are you looking to buy a gift for someone at Amazon? Need to stock up on supplies from Amazon?
Amazon has a special program called Smile, where the company donates a small amount of your purchase to your designated charity. Once you select the ESO as your Smile recipient, just point your browser to smile.amazon.com each time you want to shop at Amazon and the Evanston Symphony will benefit. It won’t cost you a thing!
Thanks, and happy shopping.
If you have never been to one of our regular concerts and are anxious about the cost, do ask at the main Evanston library for tickets to our concerts that can be 'checked out' at no cost. We hope you enjoy our concerts and come back regularly after that.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra now offers three different program books at our subscription concerts so all can enjoy the concert to the full. We have KidNotes to help younger audience members learn about the concert and include puzzles and other 'fidget-reducing' activities. We also offer large-print programs for patrons with reduced eyesight, and then our regular program books, all of which contain so much information to help you enjoy the concert.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra is delighted to have secured funding to provide free music education classes, Music In Your World, to all 430 students in District 65’s Early Head Start, Head Start and Pre-K programs this coming academic year. In the past year we have added music classes for the home-visiting families in Early Head Start.
We thank Evanston Community Foundation, The Kiwanis Club of Evanston, and North End Mothers Club for their support.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has received a generous bequest from the estate of Anne Dow Weinberg. Ms. Weinberg regularly attended our concerts and was a good friend of Rick Greene, one of our longest serving French Horn players. Ms Weinberg is now a member of our KeyNote Society. Membership in the KeyNote Society is a reflection of the highest individual commitment to the future of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra played a wonderful free concert on May 19 with a finale that included 120 D65 middle school students. Generous donations at the concert and support from local businesses raised nearly $4,500 which will be used by D65 orchestra teachers for instrument rentals and repairs in the coming year.
Richard Wagner is widely lauded as the premier composer of German opera with a place in the history of music that cannot be denied. In addition to ushering German Romantic opera to its highest point, Wagner created the new genre of music drama, in which the music is continuous throughout each act rather than being divided into concrete arias, recitative (speech-singing that carries the story forward), or other set numbers.
ESO’s 75th Anniversary celebration begins on Nov. 7 with a concert at the Evanston Township High School Auditorium. The program includes Johannes Brahms’ monumental Symphony No. 4, Mendelsohn’s beloved Violin Concerto in E Minor, featuring Arnaud Sussmann, and Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger.
Putting together our Lakefront Pops Concert requires the efforts, expertise, and consideration of many individuals and entities. It all begins with our artistic director, Maestro Lawrence Eckerling, and his care-filled selection of the program. Audience favorites, coupled with pieces to challenge and inspire the orchestra, create a successful balance to please all those involved. From Rossini to Rogers and Hammerstein to John Williams to the 1812 Overture to Sousa, there is something for everyone!
We posed some questions about the summer concert to several of our musicians and are pleased to share their answers with you.
What are you most looking forward to about the summer concert?
Without exception, everyone is excited about playing again with colleagues and seeing everyone in person. Cellist Andrea Musolf said, “I never got used to not playing in an orchestra during the pandemic. I’ve been playing in orchestras since 3rd grade, so this was the first time I was ‘orchestra-less.’”
