The Evanston Symphony Orchestra will present its first Young Persons’ concert on Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m. at the Evanston Township High School auditorium, 1600 Dodge St., Evanston.

This one-hour concert is free and is the ideal introductory orchestral concert for children 5–13 years, but all are welcome. Maestro Lawrence Eckerling will explore and explain the families of instruments that make up a symphony orchestra. Parents, grandparents, and children are all sure to enjoy this concert.

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra is joining with Evanston School District 65 to make this an extra special concert. More than 100 middle school students will play alongside Evanston Symphony Orchestra musicians on the final piece of the concert, an arrangement of “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Also on the program is Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, narrated by Henry Fogel, dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University, plus the main title from John Williams’ Star Wars and the ‘Mambo’ from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein.

The Evanston Symphony will be accepting donations at this concert to support District 65’s orchestra program with quality scholarship instrument rental and repair. In addition, ESO is offering to print ‘tweet-length’ messages of up to 140 characters in the concert program for a donation of $25 or more. For more information on the concert, or to make a donation, go to evanstonsymphony.org