Evanston Symphony Orchestra Announces 74th Season Featuring Beethoven 250

August 15, 2019, Evanston, IL — The Evanston Symphony Orchestra’s 74th season, titled “Great Composers”, will include four subscription concerts at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston, all conducted by Music Director Lawrence Eckerling, and featuring virtuoso soloists prominent on the national scene. All concerts are on Sunday afternoons at 2:30 PM and good subscription seats are still available.

The year 2020 marks world-wide celebrations to honor the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The ESO will join these festivities with two all-Beethoven concerts; one will be the final concert of this upcoming season on May 3, 2020 and the second concert will be a part of the 75th anniversary season of 2020/2021. The May 3, 2020 concert will feature renowned pianist Inna Faliks in the Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”; the program also includes Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture and the Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral.”

The season will open on November 10, 2019 with Mindy Kaufman of the New York Philharmonic taking the solo parts in Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major, RV 443, and in Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto. The program begins and ends with two masterworks of Jean Sibelius: Finlandia and the Symphony No. 1.

The second concert on February 2, 2020 features music by American composers including the Pulitzer Price winner George Walker (his Lyric for Strings), Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, and George Gershwin’s Concerto in F Major with pianist Jeffrey Biegel.

Three great Russian composers will be represented on the March 15, 2020 concert, which will open with Four Dances from Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Gayane. ESO favorite Irina Muresanu returns as soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the concert will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Symphony No. 4.

The fourth and final concert of the subscription series is the all-Beethoven concert on May 3, 2020.

The brochure for the 74th season is available on the website www.evanstonsymphony.org, by email at tickets@evanstonsymphony.org or by calling 847.864.8804. Subscription prices are $104 for adults, $88 for seniors (62 and over), $20 for full-time students and FREE for children 12 and under when accompanied by an adult. On-line sales for single tickets and subscriptions will begin on September 1, 2019. Children’s tickets are only available by calling 847.864.8804.

Founded in 1945, the Evanston Symphony was the Illinois Council of Orchestra’s “Orchestra of the Year” in 2017.