You are here

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

  • Our Next Concert
    Mahler’s Resurrection

    Sunday, June 11, 2017

    Mozart

    Mahler

    with the North Shore Choral Society directed by Julia Davids

    North Shore Choral Society
  • Announcing Our 2016–17 Season
    Symphonic Blockbusters

    Subscribe Today*

    Save more than 30%

    Get the best seats

    Free exchanges

    *mail or phone only; online sales start 9/1/16.

  • 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.

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.

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.

Latest news

Program notes for all ages

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra now offers three different program books at our subscription concerts so all can enjoy the concert to the full. We have KidNotes to help younger audience members learn about the concert and include puzzles and other 'fidget-reducing' activities. We also offer large-print programs for patrons with reduced eyesight, and then our regular program books, all of which contain so much information to help you enjoy the concert.

Learn More!

ESO receives generous bequest

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has received a generous bequest from the estate of Anne Dow Weinberg. Ms. Weinberg regularly attended our concerts and was a good friend of Rick Greene, one of our longest serving French Horn players. Ms Weinberg is now a member of our KeyNote Society. Membership in the KeyNote Society is a reflection of the highest individual commitment to the future of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra.

Learn More!

Pages

A Trip to the Old West

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland, born in Brooklyn on Nov. 14, 1900, was destined to become one of America's most renowned composers. He first learned to play the piano from his older sister; at 16, he studied under the tutelage of Rubin Goldmark in Manhattan, which also allowed his interest in classical music to flourish, attending concerts by the New York Symphony and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Learn More!

Jonathan Bailey Holland, Dean and Composer

Jonathan Bailey Holland

Jonathan Bailey Holland, current Dean and Professor of Music at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, was raised in Flint, Michigan, by music-loving parents who worked for the Flint schools. Music was always playing in their home, either on the radio or from his ­father’s extensive record collection of everything from jazz to classical. Jonathan says that all styles excited him from an early age and he responded to “any kind of music that made you move!”

Learn More!

Italian Passion in Prague

Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756-1791) Don Giovanni remains one of the most celebrated and influential operas in his impressive repertoire. Premiering on Oct. 29, 1787, the popularity of Don Giovanni spawned numerous arrangements and borrowings by future greats, including Franz Liszt, Frederic Chopin, and Ludwig van Beethoven, while "Là ci darem la mano" makes appearances in pop culture in the latter 20th century in Babette’s Feast and The Muppet Movie.

Learn More!

Studying Abroad in Italy

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was born in Salzburg, Austria, to a musical family where he and his sister, Nannerl, received musical training at a very young age. At 5 years old, Mozart could already read and write music; by age 6, he was writing compositions and was an accomplished keyboard musician. Escorted by his father, Leopold, Mozart and his sister performed across Europe, including for audiences of French and English royal families.

Learn More!

Pages