Lawrence Eckerling
Conductor
Music director leading Evanston Symphony's mix of core repertoire and large choral-orchestral works.
In short
Lawrence Eckerling appears as conductor with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra in the 2026-27 season, leading programs that range from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Violin Concerto to Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saëns, and Karl Jenkins. Based on this schedule, he is a conductor active with a Chicago-area community orchestra, presenting audiences with a season built around well-known symphonic staples and one large-scale peace-themed choral work.
On the podium
Across these four concerts, listeners can expect firmly canonical programming: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, with its famous four-note opening motif that recurs across all four movements, sits alongside his sole Violin Concerto. A "Great Romantics" program pairs Rachmaninoff's lushly melodic Second Piano Concerto with Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral showpiece Scheherazade, known for its solo violin depicting the storyteller. Respighi's Fountains of Rome offers vivid orchestral color, paired with Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony, which brings a pipe organ into the orchestral texture for a monumental finish. The season closes with Haydn's Symphony No. 100 and the Benedictus from Jenkins' The Armed Man, a modern choral-orchestral meditation on war and peace.
Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.