Hello from the Evanston Symphony Orchestra!

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra (ESO) is a true community orchestra. Our players are all members of our Evanston and neighboring communities who come together for the joy of making music. All of the 80+ musicians are volunteers with one exception: because her job is so time-consuming, our concertmaster, the wonderful Julie Fischer, is our only paid musician. Our Music Director and conductor, Maestro Lawrence Eckerling, another consummate professional, also lives in our community and ensures that the concerts we present are of high quality, engaging, and musically excellent. The ESO presents five concerts a year – a four-concert subscription series played at Pick Staiger Concert Hall on Northwestern’s campus, and a bright, festive Holiday concert each December at Evanston Township High School. We partner with other community performing arts organizations for this seasonal concert – North Shore Choral Society, Evanston Children’s Choir, Evanston Dance Ensemble, an a cappella choir from ETHS, and our own gospel choir, led by Rev. Ken Cherry of Christ Temple Church Evanston. We also present Musical Insights, free pre-concert lectures and recitals held in the Crystal Ballroom at The Merion on Chicago Ave. on the Friday prior to each subscription concert. Seniors from all over Evanston come to hear these very special afternoon performances. And, for the past year, we’ve also been offering Seniors our large-print program notes at each concert. For the youngest members of our community, we bring free music education classes to students in Head Start, Pre-K, and Early Head Start at District 65’s Joseph E Hill building. We build the love of music and the happiness it brings in our community’s youngest, most vulnerable students, helping them towards kindergarten readiness. To address the potential “fidget factor” in grade and middle school students at concerts, we’ve been publishing “KidNotes” since 1997. It’s morphed into a 20-page booklet not unlike this first addition of “HighNotes,” but with articles and games for middle-schoolers rather than some of the materials here that are of more interest to Seniors. We hope you enjoy “HighNotes” and, when this pandemic allows us to go back to presenting concerts, we hope you will come be part of our audience. Seniors are always offered the best ticket prices!

HighNotes – ESOA – 4Jul2020

1. The U.S. Marine Band – “The President’s Own” – plays two Sousa marches, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and “Semper Fidelis.” There’s a nice introduction by the conductor explaining how John Philip Sousa came to write each march. “The Stars and Stripes Forever” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7XWhyvIpE “Semper Fidelis” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgABUZ4i9co

2. The 1812 Overture - We couldn’t find a good video of Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” complete with cannons and fireworks, but this performance by the Pops at Tanglewood is truly spectacular because it includes two world class drum and bugle corps, the Boston Crusaders and the Blue Devils from California. The reaction of the audience is wonderful when the two corps raise their instruments for the first time. That’s a LOT of Sousaphones! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtk5-lzVm8

For a good idea of the end of the piece when the cannons are fired, here’s the military unit demonstrating the precision required in the timing of the cannons. There’s a pretty spectacular fireworks display, too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAjN9WkTwA8

Finally, three fun pieces. First is the Sydney Symphony Orchestra using a “paper bag artillery” because they didn’t have any cannons handy! https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=1812+overture+with+paper+bags&docid=60801 8307771532331&mid=2B94F000D6986E0F9F952B94F000D6986E0F9F95&view=detai l&FORM=VIRE

Then there’s a performance by the Out There Orchestra where the entire audience gets to be the artillery - and are obviously having lots of fun! https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=1812+overture+with+paper+bags&docid=60802 4492567564086&mid=D3230BD16A5B08B7E796D3230BD16A5B08B7E796&view=det ail&FORM=VIRE

Last is “A Grand. Grand Overture,” Malcolm Arnold’s parody on Tchaikovsky’s work. Here the musicians start out by tuning the vacuums and floor polisher to the oboe, and get very involved with their parts, even improvising a bit with other dusting implements: dust busters, feather dusters and dusting cloths. All good, “clean” fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4oGXQsWc-Q

HighNotes – ESOA – 4Jul2020