ESO named 2017 Community Orchestra of the Year
For immediate release March 15, 2017
Community Orchestra of the Year
Evanston Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director
-
Guest Artist Appearances sponsored by
Todd Wiener and Paula Jacobi -
-
2024-2025 SERIES: Soul & Inspiration
Musical Insights
Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!
April 4, 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 takes you on an insider’s tour of the history and highlights behind the music.
Meet our soloist, Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano, at Musical Insights. She and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the April concert program in depth.
Friday, April 4 at 1:30 pm,
Merion's Emerald Lounge 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.
Latest news
Improved Pick-Staiger Access
Breaking news (1/19/2015): Arts Circle Drive, leading up to Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, is now fully open. You can drive all the way up to the entrance now to drop people off. Both levels of the parking garage are open, with exits at the east and west ends.
If you park on the upper level, the eastern pedestrian exit is now on the same level as Pick Staiger. There are no steps at all between the parking and the concert hall, and no hill to climb.
Pages
The Romance of a Bygone Era
John Williams was born in New York City in 1932, the son of a jazz drummer, Johnny Williams. The Williams family moved to Los Angeles in 1948, where John attended North Hollywood High School. He studied composition privately and for a short time at UCLA before being drafted into the U.S. Air Force. During his service, he arranged band music and began conducting.
Passionate and Energetic Symphonic Dances
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was born into a musical family in the rural village of Semyonovo. He studied piano and composition at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1892. A famous composer and virtuosic pianist, he also spent several years conducting, becoming conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1904. After the Russian Revolution, he and his family settled in New York in 1918.
An Armenian National Treasure
Aram Khachaturian is an Armenian national treasure. He was born to an Armenian family in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1903 and is considered a leading composer of the Soviet Union. According to music historian Harlow Robinson, "his proletariat origins, non-Russian ethnic origins, and Soviet training [made him] a powerful symbol within the Soviet musical establishment.”
A Birthday Gift
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), the Russian composer known for his many symphonies, chamber works, and concerti studied piano and composition at a young age. He achieved more success as a composer, and therefore his public piano performances were often of his own pieces.