'Brahms & Shostakovich' start off new year for ESO

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra opens 2010 with "Brahms & Shostakovich" on Friday, Jan. 8 at the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts and Saturday, Jan. 9 and Sunday, Jan. 10 at the Hemmens Theatre in downtown Elgin.

This concert features guest conductor Maestra Tania Miller, who has won high praise as the first female music director of a major Canadian orchestra. Together, Miller and the ESO will perform the music that defines Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel, and Dmitri Shostakovich as beloved orchestral composers: the artistic and passionate Symphony No. 3 by Brahms, Ravel's orchestrated suite "Le Tombeau de Couperin," and Shostakovich's lighter and playful Symphony No. 9.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Jan. 8 at the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court, and 8 p.m. Jan. 8 and 3:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Hemmens, 45 Symphony Way in downtown Elgin. Musically Speaking, the preconcert lecture series, begins one hour before each performance.

For information, call the ESO Box Office at (847) 888-4000 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, or visit ElginSymphony.org. To stay up-to-date on all ESO events, visit facebook.com/ElginSymphonyOrchestra. Groups of 10 or more qualify for discounted tickets - speak to a box office representative for more details.

The next concert will be an evening of Russian masterworks features Van Cliburn Silver Medalist Joyce Yang performing Prokofiev's most popular piano concerto, along with Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, three jewels of the timeless collection of Russian orchestral music on Friday to Sunday, Jan. 29-31 at the Hemmens. It will be led by conductor Robert Hanson.

The ESO continues to broadcast its Classics performances on the fourth Friday of each month on 98.7 FM WFMT.