• Our Next Concert

    Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto

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

    Robbins Coleman

    Tchaikovsky

    with Kariné Poghosyan, piano

    Mendelssohn

    See vaccine and other requirements

    Kariné Poghosyan, piano

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    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.

     

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    Treat a friend or relative to the ESO

    Give the gift of music by purchasing a custom gift certificate in any denomination of your choice!

     

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2022–2023 SERIES: Spotlight on Women Artists

 

 

Download the 2022–2023 Season Brochure!

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Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

March 31, 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 take you on an insider’s tour of the history and highlights behind the music.

Meet our soloist, Kariné Poghosyan, at Musical Insights. She and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the concert program in depth.

The Merion
Friday, March 31 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

Health & Safety

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra strongly recommends the proper wearing of masks at all times for audiences including while in line to enter, when in close proximity to others, and throughout the performance. At this time, masks are optional at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and at The Merion during Musical Highlights events. Guidelines may change in accordance with public health recommendations, so please check back here and pre-performance reminders for updates. Proof of vaccination is currently not required for audience members, Please note that all staff and artists are fully vaccinated.

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In Memoriam: David Ellis

David Ellis in 2012, receiving an award

With sad and heavy hearts, on August 1st the Evanston Symphony announced that David Ellis, the ESO’s General Manager, passed away on July 26, 2022, following heart complications. Our sympathy and care continue to go out to Marcia, his wife, and their sons, Michael, Matthew, and Peter, for the depth and pain of their loss.

David was our General Manager for 18 years. He knew all of our musicians and all of our patrons, including their seat numbers! His knowledge of classical music was second to none and his love of this music was always appreciated at our Musical Insights lectures.

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Celebrating Wilmette’s 150th birthday with a free outdoor concert

Summer 2021 ESO Pops Concert, Wilmette

Wednesday, August 24th, 6:30 pm — Wallace Bowl, Gillson Park, Wilmette.

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra is teaming up with the Wilmette Sesquicentennial committee to perform another free outdoor pops concert on the lakefront. Bring your whole family for this hour-long concert featuring show tunes, movie music, a hoe-down and Sousa’s Washington Post. We even have a piece arranged by Percy Faith, once one of Wilmette’s illustrious residents. Baker Demonstration School is partnering with us to provide free children’s activities before and during the concert, including an instrument petting zoo. Come along and enjoy the music on our beautiful lakefront.

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A Change of Heart

The Russian Romantic composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor over a span of four months between 1874 and 1875. He wanted his colleague Nikolai Rubinstein to play the piece for its premiere; however, Rubinstein did not like the piece and refused to play it unless it was heavily edited. Tchaikovsky did not want to make any significant changes to his work, so he reached out to Hans von Bülow instead. The German pianist not only liked the composer’s music, but Tchaikovsky enjoyed von Bülow’s concert performances in Moscow.

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A Choral Work as Symphony

Felix Mendelssohn was a musical prodigy from a very young age. Mendelssohn’s family helped cultivate his talents beyond music, including lessons in literature and painting. He studied piano, which included some travel to Paris with his sister where he took piano lessons. During his boyhood, he composed 5 operas, 11 symphonies for string orchestra, concerti, and sonatas. 

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17th-Century Events, 20th-Century Music

Linda Robbins Coleman is a native of Des Moines, Iowa. A Drake University graduate, Coleman was Composer-in-Residence for Drake Theatre, scoring 35 plays ranging from the ancient Greeks to the moderns from 1977-1997. An accomplished pianist, Coleman has been performing since the age of 6 and worked professionally as a jazz and classical soloist and collaborative pianist. Coleman is a published poet and writer, and for four decades she served as collaborator, research associate, and editor with Professor William S. E. Coleman.

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Mahler's Monumental First Symphony

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) wrote his ambitious first symphony while he was a conductor of the Leipzig Opera in Germany in 1888. On the piece’s first page, Mahler wrote wie ein naturlaut, which loosely translates to “as if spoken by nature.”

Right from the start, Mahler’s first symphony is new and spellbinding. The opening multi-octave A played by the strings creates an otherworldly feel. If you listen closely, you may recognize some of the first notes played by the winds, which are similar to the introduction music to the famous Gene Rodenberry series Star Trek.

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