Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Although some music fans probably thought the idea of mixing progressive / symphonic metal with Christmas music was a bad idea, producer / manager / composer Paul O’Neill’s musical project Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) became one of the most successful acts in Christmas music history, selling millions of albums and turning holiday music into spectacular live rock shows that were performed around the world. Founded in Tampa, Florida by Paul O’Neill, he recruited Savatage members Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli along with keyboardist / co-producer Robert Kinkel to create the core creative team for the TSO project. The group released their debut album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, in 1996. Consisting of traditional Christmas melodies, new lyrics by Paul O’Neill and additional music by O’Neill, Jon Oliva, and Robert Kinkel, the album was a commercial success and became the ninth best-selling Christmas album in history. The album became the first in what was referred to as a trilogy which also included the albums The Christmas Attic (1998) and The Lost Christmas Eve (2004). TSO also created a television special entitled The Ghosts of Christmas Eve in 1999, initially releasing the show on DVD in 2001 and the soundtrack in 2016. Their final Christmas release was the Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night) EP in 2012, which was based on the fourth (Winter) movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. While best-known for their holiday releases, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has also issued works based on classical composers (2000’s Beethoven’s Last Night) as well as albums that blended original material with music by classical composers (2009’s Night Castle and 2015’s Letters from the Labyrinth). Although TSO’s lineup was different on each album, the core of O’Neill / Kinkel / Oliva / Pitrelli was joined by many well-known performers including Jeff Scott Soto (vocals / guitar), Chris Caffery (guitar), Vitalij Kuperij (keyboards), Ossie Davis (narration), Michael Crawford (vocals), and Jewel (vocals), among many others. Paul O’Neill died on Aprils 5, 2017, of a drug overdose at the age of 61. Bassist David Z died in a highway accident on July 14, 2017. Keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij died from cardiac arrest on February 22, 2024, at the age of 49.

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