2023 Holiday Concert Video
The ESO celebrated the holidays with a wonderful concert with many community partners. Please enjoy this video.
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2016-17 Season of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra | Evanston Illinois’ Community Orchestra playing classical music concerts at Pick Staiger Hall
2025-2026 SERIES: The POWER of Music
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 Crystal Ballroom 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
Health & Safety
Masks, vaccinations, and testing are no longer required to attend ESO concerts. However, after discussion with our expert physician consultant and given the recent rise in COVID, flu and RSV infections in the Chicago area, the ESO encourages masking during the concert. As always, we ask that if you are sick, please stay home to prevent the spread of illness. The ESO continues to monitor COVID and will adapt this policy as needed.
The ESO Welcomes New General Manager Michelle Pranger
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has appointed Michelle Pranger its general manager effective May 1, 2023. Pranger will oversee all operations; work with Music Director Lawrence Eckerling and the Board of Directors on concerts, community programs and outreach; manage ticket sales and subscriber relations; and help manage communications.
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Enchanting a Mythical Forest
Stacy Garrop is a contemporary American composer whose music often tells stories drawn from myth, history, and lived experience. Based in Chicago, she has built a reputation for writing works that are both dramatically expressive and immediately accessible to audiences. Her career began in academia, with degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and Indiana University, followed by a long tenure teaching composition before she turned her full attention to freelancing.
Join us Aug 19 at Gillson Park
Fifth Annual Lakeside Pops Concert
Tuesday, August 19 at 7:00 pm
Gillson Park, Wilmette
Finding Inspiration In Other Works
American composer William Grant Still (1895-1978) is known as the “Dean of African-American Classical Composers,” having written nearly 200 works including symphonies, ballets, operas, and more. In 1931, his first major orchestral composition, Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American,” was performed by the Rochester Philharmonic conducted by Howard Hanson. Not only was it the first time a complete score by an African American composer was performed by a major orchestra, but it also was one of the most popular symphonies by an American composer at the time.
Mutual Admiration Society
At first glance, George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel might seem to occupy two very different musical worlds, yet they both shared a passion for jazz.