Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director
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.
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) wrote his ambitious first symphony while he was a conductor of the Leipzig Opera in Germany in 1888. On the piece’s first page, Mahler wrote wie ein naturlaut, which loosely translates to “as if spoken by nature.”
Considered to be one of the major composers of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was also an accomplished pianist and conductor. His musical education began at an early age when his mother–who was a talented pianist herself–taught him piano and took him to opera performances in Moscow. He continued his music education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory completing composition study in 1909, graduating with performance degrees in piano and conducting in 1914.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra will open our February concert with the Overture from Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro. It is one of the most recognizable classical tunes ever recorded, is exuberant and joyful, and is sure to delight.
Since its inception in 1936, the North Shore Choral Society (NSCS) has grown to combine 120 voices in what is the preeminent mixed chorus on the North Shore. Over the years, it evolved from programming shorter works to presenting major choral compositions such as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Brahms’ German Requiem.
Born in Woodville, Miss., in 1895 and raised in Little Rock, Ark., William Grant Still was an arranger, conductor, multi-instrumental performer, and composer who blazed trails for African-American artists. He was the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by a professional orchestra in the U.S., the first to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, and the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company. His Troubled Island was also the first opera by an African-American to be nationally televised.
With the COVID-19 Omicron variant affecting all of Northern Illinois and the United States, the Evanston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Lawrence Eckerling have decided to postpone the scheduled Feb. 13 subscription concert. The new date is June 19 and will feature Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with soloist Hyejin Joo, and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. The rescheduled concert will be held at the Evanston Township High School Auditorium. All tickets will be honored. The Auditorium features open seating and will open at 2 p.m.
Ferdinand (Ferde) Grofé (1892-1972) was born in New York City and came from a long line of classically trained musicians. He was a part of an American orchestral music wave in the early 20th century that began to incorporate jazz, folk, and more complex harmonies into orchestral compositions. Gershwin might be the most recognizable name from this time, and Grofé and Gershwin were contemporaries and colleagues. Grofé is the orchestrater of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
George Gershwin was already a popular Broadway songwriter by the time his Rhapsody in Blue premiered on February 12, 1924. This revolutionary work exploded onto the music scene and launched the young composer’s star into the stratosphere. Walter Damrosch, the conductor of the New York Symphony, was in the audience for that first performance, and a short time later he approached Gershwin about composing a piano concerto and serving as the work’s first soloist.
Called “riotously funky” by the Chicago Tribune, Jonathan Newman’s Blow It Up, Start Again was commissioned by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and premiered in 2012 at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. The piece continues to be performed by orchestras around the world. Trained as a pianist, trombonist, and singer, Newman’s music incorporates many styles from classical to jazz, and everything in between.