From Hedwig to Han Solo: The Music of John Williams
Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 pm
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie, IL
Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 22 at 2:30 pm
Hemmens Cultural Center, Elgin, IL
Sorry, tickets to this experience are no longer available.
John Williams and his music need no introduction. The five time Oscar-Award winning composer’s music has defined a generation of film scoring. His works come to life on stage with the ESO and resident conductor Stephen Squires.
Concert Program
Stephen Squires, conductor
Isabella Lippi, violin
Single Tickets On Sale Summer 2020
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Prices: Adults $51 / Youth $41 (ages 16 and under)
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NOTEworthy Concert Facts
John Williams and his music need no introduction. The five time Oscar-Award winning composer’s music has defined a generation of film scoring. His works come to life on stage with the ESO and resident conductor Stephen Squires.
Music selections include:
Flying Theme from E.T.
Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter
Revisiting Normandy from Saving Private Ryan
Theme from Jurassic Park
Three Pieces from Schindler’s List
Suite from Star Wars
Stephen Squires is a musician with a career that blends his passions for conducting, teaching, and performing. Mr. Squires has had the honor to conduct for many exceptional artists, including Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, Janos Starker, Pinchas Zuckerman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, John Browning, Leon Bates, Stewart Goodyear, Richard Stoltzman, Ani Kavafian, Wendy Warner, James Tocco, Kevin Cole, Vadim Gluzman and most of the principal players of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera Orchestras. Fully committed to conducting the music of living composers, he has premiered over eighty new works.
Mr. Squires received his musical training at the Preparatory School of the Eastman School of Music and the Crane School of Music, in his home state of New York. He earned his Master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting/Trumpet Performance at California State University, Northridge. Further conducting studies were with Helmuth Rilling, Maurice Abravanel, Daniel Lewis, Tsung Yeh, and at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Squires has conducted recordings for the Delos, Spring Hill (a division of EMI), MEDR, Editions de la Rue Margot, Albany, MSR Classics, and Centaur labels. Stephen Squires is Professor of Conducting in the Music Conservatory of the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University. Prior to this appointment he served on the artist faculty of the Northern Illinois School of Music for nineteen years, where he received the prestigious “Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.”
A Maryland native raised in Severn, Andrew Grams began conducting at the age of 17, when he directed the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1999 he rMr. Squires’ current professional appointments include Resident Conductor of the Elgin (IL) Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra (Rockford, IL), Music Director of the Millar Brass (Evanston, IL), and Music Director of the Illinois Brass Band (Arlington Heights, IL). He is the former Music Director of the Illinois Chamber Symphony. Mr. Squires has guest conducted the Chicago Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, the Columbus (OH) Symphony and the Chicago Composers Orchestra. In addition, he is an accomplished recital accompanist, freelance trumpeter, and frequent guest conductor at educational festivals throughout the country.
Violinist Isabella Lippi, who has been called “A standout, even among virtuosos,” began performing in public at the age of 10 when she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has since performed in numerous recitals and has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Europe and the Far East.
In 1989, Isabella Lippi won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition, so impressing Maestro Leonard Slatkin, that for the first time in the 55-year history of the competition, the winner (Ms. Lippi) was invited to perform with the symphony in subscription concerts under Maestro Slatkin. Of this program, the St. Louis Post Dispatch declared, “Lippi introduced rhythmic subtleties into the music of the like that haven’t been heard since the heyday of Heifetz.”
In addition to the Chicago Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony, Isabella Lippi has performed with numerous orchestras including the Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New Orleans Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, the New World Symphony under Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, the Mexico City Philharmonic under Enrique Batiz, the San Diego Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao of Spain, and the Moscow Symphony.
Ms. Lippi has won a number of competitions and awards including First Place in the Young Musicians Foundation National Debut Competition, Highest Honors in the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Talent Search, the Henryk Szerying International Competition, and the Illinois Young Performers Competition where she performed again with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a live television broadcast under Maestro Hugh Wolff. She was also named a Presidental Scholar in the Arts.
In January 1998, Isabella Lippi made her New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts. Other important debuts included recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Chicago’s Ravinia Festival and the famous Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
In addition to her work as a soloist, Ms. Lippi has participated in numerous chamber music festivals including those of Santa Fe, La Jolla, Mainly Mozart and the Aspen Music Festival. She was Concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony from 1999-2002 and is currently Concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony.
Ms. Lippi has been a featured artist on a number of radio stations throughout the United States including WQXR in New York, WNIB in Chicago and KFAC in Los Angeles; and in a nationally distributed educational program entitled Encounters. She is featured on a CD on the Koch International label which contains complete works for violin and piano and the solo works by the late composer, Miklos Rozsa.
Born in Chicago, Isabella Lippi’s teacher have included Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California, Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School and Almita and Roland Vamos in Chicago.
