A northern Illinois orchestra is making its concerts more accessible by offering free options.
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra will offer free concerts this summer. This year, they are also doing something new.
Marc Thayer is the CEO of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. He said the group wanted to find a way to invite new people to future concerts. The answer – offering a few free subscriptions to the next concert series.
“We do a set of six concerts, starting in October,” Thayer said, “and it's more or less the first weekend of each month, October, November. This year, we are moving to February, March, April and May.”
He said those include classic concerts, which feature composers like Beethoven.
“Or something by Tchaikovsky or Mozart that people would recognize,” he added, “and we try to mix in some new music, also by living composers and Latin American, African American composers and women composers and music that is being written today about things going on today.”
Every week this month, the organization will give out two free subscriptions to people who haven’t attended since January of 2020 or those who’ve never been to an Elgin Symphony Orchestra concert before. Each subscription includes two tickets.
The free summer concerts start on June 19 at the Gail Borden Public Library. Entry forms for free subscriptions and more concert dates can be found on the Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s website.
