Release - Trans-Siberian Orchestra Celebrates 20 Years of TSO at AMALIE Arena December 18

Paul O’Neill launched a project in 1996 that over the past 20 years has become a critically-acclaimed, multi-platinum, musical powerhouse: Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The progressive rock group’s record-setting “rock theater” tours sell out venues year after year and have cemented TSO’s status as a must-attend, multi-generational, holiday tradition. Now, TSO’s creator/lyricist/composer O’Neill is proud to announce that in its Platinum anniversary year, the group is bringing back its treasured tale, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” to 61 cities across North America beginning on November 17, stopping at Tampa’s AMALIE Arena on Sunday, December 18, 2016, with shows at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM. TSO’s Winter Tour 2016 is presented nationally by the Hallmark Channel.

The tour pre-sale opens to fan club members on September 7 and runs through September 9, with the general public on sale set to begin on September 16 (see www.trans-siberian.com for details).  TSO is pleased to announce that each concert ticket purchased online will include a digital audio copy of The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. This is the first time these songs have been released in an audio package, and the album features a bonus track titled “Music Box Blues (Daryl Pediford Tribute New York 2004).”

Debuted last year to rave critical and fan reviews, and based on TSO’s multi-platinum DVD and long running PBS fundraiser, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” follows the journey of a runaway who breaks into an abandoned vaudeville theater on December 24th. While seeking shelter from the cold, the teen is discovered by the theater’s caretaker, who uses the ghosts and spirits from the building’s past to turn her life around. The rock opera features such enduring fan favorites as "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," "O’ Come All Ye Faithful," "Good King Joy," "Christmas Canon," "Music Box Blues," "Promises To Keep," and "This Christmas Day." 2016’s tour will see an all new second set containing some of TSO’s greatest hits and fan-pleasers.

O’Neill said, “This show was an experiment, to take something that was conceived for TV and try to express that story live on stage. Integrating segments of the TV show, with a live narrator, and full rock band was something TSO has never done. It brought back so many memories to see Ossie Davis and everyone else who helped make that TV special into the annual tradition that it has become. The overwhelming response from the fans during the 2015 Winter Tour drove the band's decision to take it back out on the road this year.  As always we have new artists, new special effects and lots of surprises in store. We are looking forward to seeing everyone on the road.”

2015 was another landmark year for TSO, with their hit tour and the release of the chart-topping new album, Letters from the Labyrinth (TSO’s third Top 10 album debut in a row; it spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Chart). 2015’s tour hit 60 cities across North America and played to more than 850,000 people. The run grossed more than $41 million in just 45 days, which resulted in it being ranked No. 15 on the “Top 200 North American Tours” chart and No. 30 on the “Top 100 Worldwide Tours” chart by concert industry trade Pollstar magazine.

The tour was also featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in a cover story for the Wall Street Journal. In the summer of 2015, at the Wacken Open Air music festival in Germany, TSO produced an industry first when the group performed a coordinated set across the festival’s massive two main stages to a crowd of over 80,000 fans.

TSO has cemented itself as one of the world’s biggest rock acts by playing approximately 2,000 shows for nearly 13 million fans with tour grosses of more than $580 million and selling in excess of 10 million albums and DVDs. In 2009, Billboard magazine placed TSO at No. 25 on its “Top Touring Artists of the Decade.”

As in all previous years, $1 to $2 of every ticket sold benefits select local charities. To date, in excess of $13 million has been distributed to worthy charities all across North America.