Our Mission

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s mission is to foster appreciation and enjoyment of live, professional orchestral music through concert performances and educational and community programs.

About Our Charity

As the professional orchestra of Alberta’s creative capital city, the ESO presents over 80 concerts a year of symphonic music in all genres, from classical to country. The acoustically superb, 1716-seat Francis Winspear Centre for Music is home to the ESO and houses the famous Davis Concert Organ. Every Labour Day Weekend in Hawrelak Park, the ESO presents Symphony Under the Sky – a popular Edmonton summer festival that consists of four days of diverse orchestral performances. The ESO also regularly performs for Edmonton Opera and Alberta Ballet productions.

The ESO is dedicated to enhancing the cultural life of the community through entertaining and educational concerts, events, and programs. Our Educational Concert Series engages and entertains over 30,000 Edmonton-area school children each year, with inventive and engaging curriculum-focused orchestral concerts at the Winspear Centre. Older students are invited to attend Open Dress Rehearsals, during which they get a behind-the-scenes glance at the hard work involved in preparing for a concert. Schools and children are introduced to the joy of creating their own music through the Adopt-a-Player program, in which an ESO musician guides students through the process of composing an original piece of music to be performed onstage at the Winspear Centre, and the Young Composers' Project, in which an aspiring composer is mentored by the ESO’s Composer in Residence to create a piece of music that is premiered by the ESO. The ESO also supports emerging artists with Musicians in the Making, which helps young musicians gain the all-important experience of performing in front of a live audience in the lobby prior to symphony concerts. Finally, in 2012, the ESO launched an exciting three-year pilot project - the Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta-Sistema (YONA-Sistema). Based on the El Sistema model developed over 35 years ago in Venezuela, YONA-Sistema offers three hours of violin instruction every day after school to students in Edmonton's inner city schools, with the hope of inspiring a sense of community and empowering Edmonton’s underserved youth through music education outreach. 

Ticket sales only cover 40% of the funds necessary to keep our orchestra playing and our education and outreach programs running. We invite you to make a tax deductible donation, joining hundreds of individuals who like you share the vision of a strong a prosperous professional orchestra for the entire community to enjoy.