showing only upcoming event from series in [events_list]

try shortcode [events_list recurring=1]

also, try this similar post https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-events-manager-display-1-entry-for-recurring-event-in-list?replies=5

the shortcode wouldn’t help, maybe the suggested link will.

You’d need to add some PHP to acheive this.

i’m guessing you did not understood me.
the search attributes doesn’t have this option –
if the reoccurring event has two instances, show only the closest to today.
for now the list with this query gives doesn’t give me what i want:
<?php echo EM_Events::output(array('limit'=>10, 'scope'=>'future', 'orderby'=>'start_date')); ?>

you can try something like

echo EM_Events::output(array('limit'=>10, 'scope'=>'future', 'orderby'=>'event_start_date', 'order'='ASC', 'pagination'=1 ));

'orderby'=>'event_start_date' instead of 'orderby'=>'start_date'

No. Didn’t worked. Still showing all the events of the event series on the list.
Something else i should try?

at the moment we don’t have a feature which will only show the first recurring event, you’d need to code something in yourself to achieve this.

You’d probably want to hook into something like this line:

$results = $wpdb->get_results(apply_filters('em_events_get_sql',$sql),ARRAY_A);

and add a GROUP BY clause