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2016-17 Season of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra | Evanston Illinois’ Community Orchestra playing classical music concerts at Pick Staiger Hall

  • Our Next Concert
    Blockbusters of 1830

    Sunday, March 5, 2017

    Chopin

    Berlioz

    with Kate Liu, Piano

    Kate Liu, Piano
  • 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.

  • Give the gift of music

    Treat a friend or relative to the ESO

    Give the gift of music by purchasing a custom gift certificate in any denomination of your choice!

2025-2026 SERIES: The POWER of Music

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Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

October 17, 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.

Adrian Munive, ESO Principal Clarinet, will be featured at Musical Insights.

Friday, October 17 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.

The Merion
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.

All That Jazz

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.

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Diverse All-American Pieces and Composers

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.

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A New Favorite Soulful Evanston Tradition

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra is delighted to again welcome the popular Evanston Symphony Holiday Gospel Choir led by Reverend Ken Cherry for the sixth year in a row! The Evanston Gospel Choir will perform "Oh, What a Pretty Little Baby." This is the first time they will perform this piece with full orchestra. The orchestration of this piece was graciously funded by the Evanston Arts Council.

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Songs of the Season

Nothing brings fond holiday memories to mind quite like Christmas carols. The talented vocalists of the North Shore Choral Society will offer their renditions of See Amid the Winter’s Snow and the beloved Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. The rhythmic yet lyrical Gloria by Randol Bass is returning this year, which will also highlight the ESO brass section with its exultant fanfares.

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