Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Our all-American concert opens with the Illinois premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Dreamtime Ancestors. We’re proud to be part of a consortium of orchestras to commission this work.

BREAKING NEWS: We caught up with Santa at his North Pole workshop, preparing for Christmas. But he was happy to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk to us about this year’s Evanston Symphony Holiday Concert.

“Ho, ho, ho. It’s that time of year again, folks. And one of the great pleasures of the holiday season is the Evanston Symphony’s annual Holiday Concert, which will take place 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 at Evanston Township High School.

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra welcomes the newest addition to our festive concert: The Evanston Symphony Holiday Gospel Choir led by Rev Ken Cherry will be singing a gospel version of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. The ESO commissioned the orchestration of this piece for this concert, with funding from the Evanston Arts Council, so this performance and piece are uniquely and specially Evanstonian!

The piece will be performed by the ESO, North Shore Choral Society and Evanston Children’s Choir, plus the Evanston Symphony Holiday Gospel Choir organized by Rev. Kenneth Eugene Cherry.

In addition to gingerbread men, twinkling lights and gift giving, the holidays are a time for choral music. If you are a fan of the many songs of the season, then the Evanston Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Concert is sure to delight you.

Founded in 1997, the Evanston Dance Ensemble’s mission is to deepen the exposure to and appreciation of dance for highly talented and committed young performers and diverse audiences in the greater Chicago area. We’re excited to have them back for the 10th time to celebrate the holidays with us. They’ll be dancing the March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Candy Canes (Russian Trepak), Tea (Chinese Dance), Dance of the Reed Flutes, Chocolate (Spanish Dance) and Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker.

Scheherazade is one of the most popular works in the symphonic repertoire. It has all the right ingredients—a beguiling tale with brilliant orchestration, ravishing melodies and many exquisite and thrilling solos from throughout the orchestra, particularly those played by the ESO’s wonderful concertmaster Julie Fischer as Scheherazade.

The 70th season of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra debuts this October with a sweeping symphonic poem by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Tempest; Fantasy Overture, Op. 18, draws loosely from William Shakespeare’s play by the same name.

We open our first concert of the 70th season with Rossini’s Overture to William Tell. Rossini was the most successful operatic composer of his day. He wrote 38 operas in almost 20 years, 28 of them between 1812 and 1819. He wrote his final opera, Guillaume Tell, in 1829.