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Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director

allthatjazz

Performance & Reception

Friday, October 23 at 7:00 pm

ESO & All That Jazz

Featuring Lawrence Eckerling & Don Cagen

Tickets on sale now ($50)

A fundraising concert and reception featuring Music Director Lawrence Eckerling on piano, and Principal Trumpet Don Cagen on trumpet leading a quartet in a concert of jazz favorites to support ESO community outreach programs.

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AKAR AUDITORIUM @The Church
2715 Hurd Ave. Evanston, IL
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October 18, 2026

Celebrating Beethoven’s Brilliance

February 14, 2027

Great Romantics

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April 4, 2027

Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony

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May 23, 2027

A Mass for Peace

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Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

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Enhance your concert experience with a sneak preview — Composers come alive and their passions take center stage when ESO Maestro Lawrence Eckerling takes you on an insider’s tour of the history and highlights behind the music. Get a chance to see and hear our guest soloist for each concert!

Merion’s Crystal Ballroom

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.

Orchestra News

June 2025 concert videos

Please enjoy these wonderful videos from our June concert. 

Ko-Eun Yi playing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major.

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Ko-Eun Yi
Meet Ko-Eun Yi!

Ko-Eun Yi was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. While no one in her family is a musician — her father is a consultant for start-up businesses and her mother spends significant time as a ­volunteer — her parents love music and there was always a lot of it in their home.

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Les Jacobson writes in Evanston Roundtable: "On playing the Shostakovich 5th Symphony"

I’ve written about the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony before. It’s one of the masterworks of the classical repertoire, alongside the great symphonies of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mahler. But it’s also a great deal more. A man’s life depended on this symphony. That man was the composer himself.

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Musical Notes

Charles Taylor Wins the William Grant Still Initiative for Black Conductors

In 2014 Charles Taylor found himself unexpectedly conducting a children’s choir at Millennium Park. The concert was a tribute to Nelson Mandela, who had passed away the year before. The scheduled conductor was unable to make it and Charles suddenly found himself thrust into the limelight.

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An ESO Love Story

It all began in February 1989 at an Evanston Symphony Orchestra rehearsal in the band room at ETHS. Fran Zirbel, then new to the Chicago area, had just joined the second violin section of the orchestra the month before.

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Lost and Found

You may recall a previous article in which we shared music recommendations from Evanston Symphony Orchestra members’ pandemic playlists. One musician had been listening to Violin Concerto No.

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