• Our Next Concert

    Moving Movie Music

    Sun., April 7, 2023, 2:30 p.m.

    Williams

    Morricone

    Clinton
    with Holly Mulcahy, violin
    Allegrezza Singers
    LaRob K. Rafael, Narrator

    Barber

    Gershwin

    Holly Mulcahy, violino
  • 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.

  • Our Next Concert

    Soaring Sax and Dvorak’s 8th

    Sun., June 2, 2024, 2:30 p.m.

    Dvořák

    Dukas

    Tomasi
    with Steven Banks, saxophone

    Dvořák

    Steven Banks, saxophone

2023–2024 SERIES: Feel The Passion

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

April 5, 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.

Meet our soloist, Holly Mulcahy and Composer George S Clinton, at Musical Insights. They and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the concert program in depth.

 

The Merion
Friday, April 5 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.

It Does, Indeed, Take a Village

Putting together our Lakefront Pops Concert requires the efforts, expertise, and consideration of many individuals and entities. It all begins with our artistic director, Maestro Lawrence Eckerling, and his care-filled selection of the program. Audience favorites, coupled with pieces to challenge and inspire the orchestra, create a successful balance to please all those involved. From Rossini to Rogers and Hammerstein to John Williams to the 1812 Overture to Sousa, there is something for everyone!

Learn More!

Summer Concert Through a Musician's Lens

We posed some questions about the summer concert to several of our musicians and are pleased to share their answers with you.

What are you most looking forward to about the summer concert?
Without exception, everyone is excited about playing again with colleagues and seeing everyone in person. Cellist Andrea Musolf said, “I never got used to not playing in an orchestra during the pandemic. I’ve been playing in orchestras since 3rd grade, so this was the first time I was ‘orchestra-less.’”

Learn More!

ESO’s Young Artists Competition 1972 winner: Janet Haugland-Loerkens, violin

Janet and Pablo Loerkens welcoming guests to their table d’hôte near Lausanne, Switzerland.

At 8:30 pm on Friday, May 26, 1972, Music Director Frank Miller conducted the ESO in a performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, a genuine crowd pleaser. Then Maestro Miller introduced the two teenagers who were winners of the ESO’s first Young Artists Competition: violinist Janet Haugland, who played the first movement of Paganini’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and pianist Douglas Montgomery, who played the last movement of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.4 in C Minor, both to enthusiastic applause.

Learn More!

Jen & Pen

Originally hailing from New York, Jen McGeary’s family relocated to Minneapolis and then to Chicago when she was in fourth grade. Her new school was offering the opportunity to try out stringed instruments, and after deeming the violin too squeaky and the cello too complicated, Jen settled on viola. This seemingly arbitrary selection became a passion that lasted all through high school, including time with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras and private lessons with former ESO Concertmaster Julian Arron and then college.

Learn More!

Pages