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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
Celebration Of Life: Ed Bennett
Retired ESO cellist Ed Bennett died this past March. Ed was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, and began cello there, playing in the school orchestra until his father, an electrical engineer for U.S. Steel, was transferred to Gary, Indiana, when Ed was 15. Ed enrolled in Horace Mann High School in Gary, where he continued playing cello in the high school orchestra and also played with the Gary Symphony. His most memorable concert with the latter was on December 7, 1941; only after the conclusion of the concert were they told about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
ESO’s Vince Flood named 2018 Board President of the Year
Vince Flood Receives llinois Council of Orchestras Award
Evanston Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce that Vince Flood won the award for Board President of the Year 2018 from the Illinois Council of Orchestras. Vince has been a strong and effective leader, who has taken this vibrant community orchestra to new heights of performance, while also pioneering initiatives to make it a more inclusive organization that truly serves the whole of its community.
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Exploring the Nuances of a Theme
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, a small town in Vyatka Governorate within the Russian Empire. He had five brothers and one sister, with whom he was very close. He was initially educated for a career as a civil servant, but when the opportunity to study music arose, he took full advantage and entered the newly formed Saint Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1865.
Bridging Traditions, Celebrating Heritage
Jonathan Bailey Holland, born in 1974 in Flint, MI, is an acclaimed composer whose works have been performed by orchestras and ensembles worldwide. His music has been commissioned by prominent institutions such as the Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Detroit symphony orchestras, and chamber groups like Roomful of Teeth. Blending classical traditions with contemporary and popular influences, his compositions often explore themes of duality, social justice, and identity.
Christine Lamprea, Cellist by Default!
Christine Lamprea started life as a New Yorker, the child of Colombian immigrants, then became a Texan at age seven. She started cello lessons in fifth grade with members of the San Antonio Symphony in an after-school program — but if her parents had had a bigger car, Christine wouldn’t be a cellist at all! The cello was not Christine’s first choice of instrument; she wanted to play the bass, that wonderfully deep-voiced string instrument that can dwarf its player.
Celebrating Bonds Through Music
English composer Edward Elgar (1847-1954) was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, near Worcester, England. Elgar’s most popular orchestral compositions include Variations On An Original Theme ("Enigma Variations)," "Pomp and Circumstance," and his cello concerto.