 "Photo: Special to The Prospector")
Fusing classical music, rock licks and a modern twist on traditional holiday storytelling, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has mesmerized audiences across the country. TSO's show presents traditional holiday sentiments in a Vegas-style light and music show more akin to concerts by The Who and Pink Floyd.
TSO is bringing that unconventional holiday magic to El Paso with a Nov. 16 performance at UTEP's Don Haskins Center.
TSO's 2007 winter tour, mixing symphonic rock, heavy metal, R&B, Broadway and the literature of Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, will hit more than 90 U.S. cities in 10 weeks this season, making this their largest tour to date.
The orchestra, formed in 1996, was the brainchild of producer, composer and lyricist Paul O'Neill.
TSO was a hard sell for O'Neill when he first approached Atlantic Records with his epic rock musical concept, but collaboration between longtime friends and former bandmates, Robert Kinkel, Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli made TSO into the successful holiday event it is today, consistently rating in the Top 10 for audience numbers.
"When I started the band, I wanted to take the very best of all the forms of music I grew up on and merge them into a new style," O'Neill said in a press release.
The band's four CD releases, "Beethoven's Last Night," "Christmas Eve & Other Stories," "The Christmas Attic" and 2004's "The Lost Christmas Eve," sold more than five million units and more than 900,000 just last year. Music from the band has been featured in movies like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
"I really enjoyed it because it's all the Christmas classics, but it had a different spin with the rock edge that it's given," Robert Medrano, senior public relations major, said. "For every song, there's a narration of a story and it kind of fit. It really puts you in that Christmas mood."
Medrano saw TSO when they came to the Don Haskins Center two years ago.
"It embodies the whole Christmas spirit. That sounds clichéd, but it really does, the spirit of giving, the spirit of hope," he said.
The band's set includes songs inspired by holiday favorites, "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "The First Noel," as well as songs from greats like Mozart, including "Queen of the Night." The show also appropriates songs originally recorded by the creator's former band, Savatage, including "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."
The groups said they are always experimenting with new material and it shows with the inclusion of brass quartets and the honky-tonk "Christmas Nights In Blue."
TSO has played live to more than three million people, grossing more than $100 million since their first tour in 1999. The group donates $1 from every ticket sold to charity, donating more than $3 million to date.
Attendees said TSO is quickly becoming a holiday tradition itself because of its inspirational story-telling and dramatic visuals.
"There's all the lasers and the lights. It's mesmerizing. I think it's pretty cool watching it," said Anthony Bartholomew, junior finance and economics double major. "It just looked like it was a hard thing to get together and there were a lot of people involved. It's pretty neat."
TSO travels with an orchestral string section, full rock band, vocalists and an impressive pyrotechnics display.
Evanie Gamboa, senior theatre arts major, has worked with the traveling show, unloading materials and assisting with construction of its rig last year.
"The main aspect of it is the music and the lighting. The lighting is what makes this show very glam," she said. "It's very nice. I've never experienced that kind of show and the music is very nice. It's becoming a tradition."
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 16. Tickets range from $40.50 - 47.50. For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com or call 544-8444. For more information, visit www.trans-siberian.com or call 747-5234.
Daniel Collins may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.
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