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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

The ESO Welcomes New General Manager Michelle Pranger

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has appointed Michelle Pranger its general manager effective May 1, 2023.

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ESO receives generous bequest

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has received a generous bequest from the estate of Anne Dow Weinberg. Ms. Weinberg regularly attended our concerts and was a good friend of Rick Greene, one of our longest serving French Horn players. Ms Weinberg is now a member of our KeyNote Society.

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Young Persons’ concert raises money for District 65 Orchestra Program

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra played a wonderful free concert on May 19 with a finale that included 120 D65 middle school students.

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Musical Notes

A Popular Concerto and a Suite with Two Versions

Haydn composed his Trumpet Concerto in E Flat in 1796 for his friend Anton Weidinger, who was also the developer of the keyed trumpet that could play chromatically.

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Mendelssohn goaded into speed composing Overture for Ruy Blas

In 1839 the Theater Pension Fund asked Felix Mendelssohn to write an overture and a song for their production of Ruy Blas, a play by Victor Hugo.

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A Symphony Twenty Years in the Making

Johannes Brahms is recognized as one of the great composers of the Romantic period. His career took flight in the early 1850s thanks in no small part to the mentorship of Robert Schumann, one of the leading composers and critics of the day.

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