ESO's crescendo
When Itzhak Perlman joins the Elgin Symphony Orchestra at 6 p.m. Saturday for its annual season-opening gala concert, the curtain rises on the latest chapter for America's fastest-growing regional orchestra.
The 2007-08 season will be the largest in the orchestra's 58-year history: 38 individual concerts encompassing the Classic Series, Pops Series, Holiday Showcase at the Sears Centre and Saturday's gala concert. Seven years ago, there were half that number, including just 12 individual Classic Series concerts instead of the 24 the orchestra now offers.
The big news this season is the addition of a Friday matinee series of six 1:30 p.m. concerts, plus the addition of a fourth Pops Series program.
The regular Friday night concerts, started several years ago, will remain but with an earlier starting time of 8 p.m.
Hemmens Theatre in downtown Elgin is the venue for most of the ESO's concerts, but the popular Friday Schaumburg series will see an increase this season from five concerts to six (two Classic Series and all four Pops Series programs).
"We originally were going to add the fourth pops concert last season, but we put it off one year," said ESO Executive Director Michael Pastreich. "One thing I've always been impressed with our board is that when they set their sights on what they want to achieve five years out, we stick to that schedule, and moving the fourth pops concert back a year was already a significant delay -- but then, just one year later, they deduced it was time to move forward."
The six Friday matinee concerts are a major step for an orchestra of the ESO's size and budget.
"There were two reasons we decided to offer a matinee series," Pastreich said. "First, our Sunday matinees were our highest-selling concerts, our most traditionally sold-out concerts. That showed our matinees were working. Second, we also knew that every year, we have a few loyal audience members that we lose because they can't drive after dark, and with these concerts they can be home before the sun sets."
Also, the orchestra's group sales manager contacted retirement homes throughout the Northwest suburbs and found a large potential audience there.
"Finally, we know we have lots of people in our community who are also looking for social opportunities during the day," Pastreich said, adding that he called every orchestra in the United States offering a matinee series, and all but two said matinees were their best-selling series.
Pastreich also believes the city of Elgin will benefit by having ESO patrons visit on Friday afternoons.
"Elgin is an extraordinary city, but a lot of people in the area just don't know it yet," he said. "By bringing a whole new group of people into downtown Elgin, we're going to help fill the restaurants. We're working on a program with the restaurants to make sure people can have lunch and go to the concert, or go to the concert first and have lunch afterward.
"In that way, we're serving our community in a much more profound level than before."