The Elgin Symphony Orchestra will launch a new season with guest artists – Shaw Local

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra will open its 73rd season with a program featuring the music of Antonin Dvořák, Wynton Marsalis and Sir Edward Elgar at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 8 and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 9 at the Hemmens Center cultural, 45 Symphony Way, in downtown Elgin.

Guest conductor Andres Lopera, now in his fourth season as Associate Conductor of the Columbus Symphony and Music Director of the Columbus Youth Symphony Orchestra, will lead the ESO in Dvořák’s “Carnival Overture”, Marsalis’ Violin Concerto and the “Enigma Variations” by Elgar..” Lopera is a candidate, along with several other conductors this season, for the open position of music director at the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, a position that should be filled next summer, according to a press release.

Acclaimed by The New York Times as “the versatile violinist who brings music to life” and featured at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History, Kelly Hall-Tompkins will be featured on the Marsalis Violin Concerto.

Tickets are available at the ESO box office, 20 DuPage Court, Elgin, or by phone at 847-888-4000 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets can also be purchased online at ElginSymphony.org. Tickets start at $20. Student tickets are $10, and youth 17 and under attend free with a paying adult.

About ESO

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has a long history of showcasing the works of world-renowned conductors, composers and musicians and promoting the advancement of women in the arts. Founded in 1950 as a community orchestra, ESO became a professional ensemble in 1985, largely through the leadership of the late Margaret Hillis, who served as ESO’s Music Director from 1971 to 1985. Hillis was l one of the first women to break into the male-dominated world of orchestral conducting, and is credited with being the driving force behind the founding of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra Association, the formation of the League ESO and the start of ESO’s outreach to young people through concerts for school students.

Today, the ESO continues to give back to the community through its Adopt-A-School program, performances at local hospitals, hospices and nursing homes, listeners’ clubs, and other free programs in public libraries, the In Harmony program at places of worship, Ainsworth Concerts for Young People (supported by the late Sterling “Stu” Ainsworth of St. Charles), free tickets for young people under 18, open rehearsals and concerts free communities throughout the region.

The ESO has been named Orchestra of the Year four times by the Illinois Council of Orchestras.