Skip to main content

Logo

Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Eckerling, Music Director

Announcing Our 2026–2027 Season

For The Love of Music

Subscribe Today

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!

Musical Insights Icon

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

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.

Young Persons' Concert on March 9

This one-hour concert at Pick-Staiger is the ideal introductory orchestral concert for children 5–13 years, but will also be fun for parents and grandparents. The concert is designed to show the wonderful storytelling nature of music.

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra May 14 Concert and May 12 “Musical Insights” Feature Violins of Hope Instruments

Evanston, Ill.—When the Evanston Symphony Orchestra plays Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky at its May 14 concert, six members will be bowing string instruments played by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust, as the ESO participates in the Violins of Hope program.