• 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
  • 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.

  • Gift Certificates

2023–2024 SERIES: Feel The Passion

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Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

May 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 takes you on an insider’s tour of the history and highlights behind the music.

Meet our soloist, Steven Banks, at Musical Insights. He and our Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore the concert program in depth.

 

The Merion
Friday, May 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.

The Return of the ESO: Free Lakefront Summer Pops Concert

Orchestra members are eager to begin rehearsals in July for the August 29 concert of light classics, music from Broadway, and movie soundtracks, highlighted by the beloved "Theme from Schindler’s List" performed by ESO Concertmaster Julie Fischer, and concluding with the ever-popular 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky and Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Learn More!

Charles Taylor Wins the William Grant Still Initiative for Black Conductors

In 2014 Charles Taylor found himself unexpectedly conducting a children’s choir at Millennium Park. The concert was a tribute to Nelson Mandela, who had passed away the year before. The scheduled conductor was unable to make it and Charles suddenly found himself thrust into the limelight. He loved it. Now, 7 years later, he is honored to be the recipient of the prestigious scholarship of the William Grant Still Initiative for Black Conductors. The scholarship has several important goals.

Learn More!

An ESO Love Story

It all began in February 1989 at an Evanston Symphony Orchestra rehearsal in the band room at ETHS. Fran Zirbel, then new to the Chicago area, had just joined the second violin section of the orchestra the month before. At that particular rehearsal, she and a handsome red-haired cellist made eye contact (as Jay says “from the back of the section you can look across and see almost everything”). At the break, Fran introduced herself to Jay Foley.

Learn More!

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