MUSICAL INSIGHTS

Enhance your concert experience with music education like you’ve never experienced before. Friday afternoon before each concert, generally at 1:30 pm, ESO General Manager David Ellis and Maestro Lawrence Eckerling present an exciting concert preview. Frequently the guest soloist for Sunday’s concert also participates. They provide a wealth of information about the composers and their works. You might learn about the trials and tribulations that challenged a composer, and what inspired his musical genius. You may learn about the structure of a symphony or concerto, outline its musical themes and motifs, and relate the work and its composer to works that precede and follow it. Maestro Eckerling adds a very personal commentary, perhaps explaining how he is interpreting a work at Sunday’s concert, or the relationship among the different pieces in the program.

A patron attending Musical Insights likened them to a well-balanced team of sports announcers, with Maestro Eckerling as the color commentator. She commented, “What a delightful Friday afternoon! I learned so much about the music, and I enjoyed Sunday’s concert so much more because I heard so much more when listening with an educated ear.”

Enjoy Musical Insights and complimentary refreshments at the Presbyterian Homes at One Calvin Circle in Evanston.

Dates for the 2011-12 season are October 21, February 3, March 9, and May 11. Musical Insights is generously underwritten by the Presbyterian Homes and is free to everyone.