• Our Next Concert

    Rhapsodies in Red, White and Blue

    Sun., April 19, 2026, 2:30 p.m.

    Coleridge-Taylor

    Gershwin

    Boyer
    with Jeffrey Biegel, piano

    Bernstein

    Gershwin
    with Jeffrey Biegel, piano

    Albert Cano Smit, piano
  • Support Your
    Symphony Orchestra

    The ESO Community is made up of Orchestra Members and Supporters. Join us!

  • Musical Insights

    Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

    April 17, Friday, at 1:00 pm (Note different time!)

    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.

    MI

    Meet our soloist, Jeffrey Biegel, piano, at Musical Insights. He and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the April concert program in depth.

    Friday, April 17
    at 1:00 pm
    Merion’s Crystal Ballroom at
    529 Davis St, Evanston.
    FREE and open to the public.

2025-2026 SERIES: The POWER of Music

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

April 17, Friday, at 1:00 pm (Note different time!)

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, Jeffrey Biegel, piano, at Musical Insights. He and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the April concert program in depth.

Friday, April 17 at 1:00 pm (Note different time!),
Merion’s Crystal Ballroom at
529 Davis St, Evanston.
FREE and open to the public.
Please RSVP to 847-570-7815.

The Merion
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

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.

Learn More!

Pages

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.

Learn More!

Christine Lamprea, Cellist by Default!

Christine Lamprea

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.

Learn More!

Hollywood Film Composer

Before the Austrian composer and conductor Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) became one of Hollywood’s most influential film composers, he was a child piano prodigy. Growing up in a musical family (his father was a music critic; his brother was a musician), Korngold began composing at age 7. At age 11, he composed his ballet Der Schneemann; at age 12, he composed a piano trio; and at age 14 he wrote the Schauspiel-Ouvertüre, his first orchestral score. By his late teens, Korngold had also written operas and chamber music.

Learn More!

Pages