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Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director

Evanston Symphony Holiday Concert

Sunday, December 13, 2026 — 3:00 pm

Make sure your holiday season starts with the best holiday event in Evanston!

Special rates for a family package of 2 adult tickets and 3 children’s tickets.

Buy Single Advance Tickets Buy Family Package Tickets

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very special

A Very Special Concert:
An inclusive holiday celebration

Sunday, December 13, 2026 — 12:30–1:15 p.m.

$5 per adult. Persons under 18 are free. Phone reservations required.

Join the Evanston Symphony Orchestra for an inclusive celebration of Holiday music. Our shortened holiday concert welcomes those who vocalize, move, and have diverse ways of experiencing music.

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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. Get a chance to see and hear our guest soloist for each concert!

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.

Orchestra News

June 2025 concert videos

Please enjoy these wonderful videos from our June concert. 

Ko-Eun Yi playing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major.

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Ko-Eun Yi
Meet Ko-Eun Yi!

Ko-Eun Yi was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. While no one in her family is a musician — her father is a consultant for start-up businesses and her mother spends significant time as a ­volunteer — her parents love music and there was always a lot of it in their home.

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Les Jacobson writes in Evanston Roundtable: "On playing the Shostakovich 5th Symphony"

I’ve written about the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony before. It’s one of the masterworks of the classical repertoire, alongside the great symphonies of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mahler. But it’s also a great deal more. A man’s life depended on this symphony. That man was the composer himself.

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Musical Notes

Evanston Symphony Teachers Go Virtual: James Donahue

The Evanston Symphony’s principal flute, James Donahue, had to navigate through his students’ initial disappointment over canceled concerts, summer camps, and competitions and his own sadness at the missed opportunity to say goodbye to his graduating students, many of whom he had taught since ele

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ESO Teachers Go Virtual: Anne McTighe

Anne McTighe, a member of the second violins, is orchestra director for Highcrest Middle School and assistant director of string ensembles for Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras.

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Evanston Symphony Teachers Go Virtual: Paula Fischer

These days, many of us have struggled to adapt to new technology as we work from home and participate in meetings via video conference. The music teachers who contribute their considerable talents to the ESO have faced similar hurdles, and some unique obstacles.

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