rockin' into christmas {december 4.2022}

Twenty-six years ago I remember hearing for the very first time on 104.7 WTUE, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24." Talk about a song speaking to your soul. And the name of the group, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. How very cool.  A lone cellist begins the song with a haunting "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," a pause, and then BAM! A powerful orchestra rocks out "Carol of the Bells." The story behind this song is that the cellist was playing Christmas carols in the midst of the Bosnian war. The piece reflects the drama of a single musician in the midst of war, reflecting on the power of music to bring hope. (Just an aside, on December 14, 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords were signed at Wright-Patterson AFB, to end the Bosnian War).

A little history behind the Trans-Siberian Orcherstra (TSO). Producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill founded this group in 1996. He built the band on a foundation created by the marriage of classical and rock music. The "Washington Post" referred to the TSO as "an arena-rock juggernaut" and described their music as Pink Floyd meets Yes and The Who at Radio City Music Hall." How the name came about: Paul O'Neill says, "In the 1980s I was fortunate enough to have visited Russia. If anyone has ever seen Siberia, it is incredibly beautiful but incredibly harsh and unforgiving as well. The one thing that everyone who lives there has in common that runs across it in relative safety is the Trans-Siberian Railway. Life, too, can be incredibly beautiful but also incredibly harsh and unforgiving, and the one thing that we all have in common that runs across it in relative safety is music. It was a little bit overly philosophical, but it sounded different, and I like the initials, TSO."

Onto the concert...my girlfriend and I went and from the moment the music started we, along with lots of others, were singing and clapping our hands, amazed by the string section (TSO hires local musicians for its string section) the light show, lasers, moving trusses, video screens, pyrotechnics, and effects synchronized to music. The visual production was as impressive as the music. Put them together and POW! You have a 2+ hour Christmas rock concert. TSO ended the show with "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo" and in 2022 that piece touched my soul just like it did 26 years ago.

"Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies."     Edward Bulwer Lytton