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Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director

Announcing Our 2026–2027 Season

For The Love of Music

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Save up to $50 and get the best seats

Celebrating Beethoven’s Brilliance
Great Romantics
Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony
A Mass for Peace

Musical Insights

Free Pre-Concert Preview Series!

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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.

Merion’s Crystal Ballroom

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.

Latest News

Celebration Of Life: 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.

ESO’s Vince Flood named 2018 Board President of the Year

Vince Flood Receives llinois Council of Orchestras Award

Evanston Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce that Vince Flood won the award for Board President of the Year 2018 from the Illinois Council of Orchestras. Vince has been a strong and effective leader, who has taken this vibrant community orchestra to new heights of performance, while also pioneering initiatives to make it a more inclusive organization that truly serves the whole of its community.

ESO named 2017 Community Orchestra of the Year

 

For immediate release March 15, 2017

Community Orchestra of the Year 

Evanston Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director

The Composer and the Poet

In 1809, Ludwig van Beethoven received a commission from Joseph Hartel, manager of the Court Theaters in Vienna, to compose the overture and incidental music to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play, Egmont.

Antonín Dvořák
Unrequited Love

Did you know Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) initially had no interest writing a cello concerto because he believed the cello was only suitable as an orchestral instrument and not for a solo concerto? Fortunately for us he changed his mind.

Tchaikovsky
The Tenderness and Turmoil of Romeo and Juliet

First performed in March of 1870, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet is a beautiful piece full of tenderness and turmoil, reflecting the themes in Shakespeare’s story of love desired and denied.  Yet, there is a thread in the story that is also emb