Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American progressive rock band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli (both members of Savatage) and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel to form the core of the creative team. Since then, TSO has sold more than 9 million concert tickets and over 8 million albums. The band's musical style incorporates classical, orchestral, symphonic, and progressive elements into hard rock and heavy metal. The band has released a series of rock operas: Christmas Eve and Other Stories, The Christmas Attic, Beethoven's Last Night, The Lost Christmas Eve (the final installment of their Christmas trilogy), and their two-disc Night Castle. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is also known for their extensive charity work and elaborate concerts, which include a string section, a light show, lasers, pyrotechnics, moving trusses, video screens, and effects synchronized to music
Both Billboard Magazine and Pollstar have ranked them as one of the top ten ticket-selling bands in the first decade of the new millennium"

Background information
Also known as TSO
Genres Progressive metal, progressive rock, symphonic rock, neo-classical metal, classical music, holiday music
Years active1993–present
Labels Lava, Atlantic, Rhino
Associated acts Savatage, Jon Oliva's Pain
Websitetrans-siberian.com
Members
Paul O'Neill
Jon Oliva
Robert Kinkel
Al Pitrelli


History
Origins and formation (1993–1996)
Paul O'Neill has managed and produced rock bands including Aerosmith, Humble Pie, AC/DC, Joan Jett, and Scorpions, later producing and co-writing albums by the progressive metal band Savatage, where he began working with Jon Oliva (who had left Savatage to spend time with his family and take care of personal matters), Al Pitrelli and Robert Kinkel. O'Neill took his first steps into rock music in the 1970s when he started the progressive rock band Slowburn, for whom he was the lyricist and co-composer. What was intended to be the band's debut album was recorded at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios and engineered by Dave Wittman. Although Dave Wittman's engineering was capturing the exact sound O'Neill was hearing in his head, O'Neill was having trouble with it because many of his melodies were between two to three octaves. Rather than releasing an album that he was not happy with, he shelved the project, but continued working in the industry at Contemporary Communications Corporation, the biggest arena rock management company at the time.[citation needed]
Over the years, O'Neill continued to work as a writer, producer, manager, and concert promoter. In 1993, he accepted Atlantic Records' offer to start his own band. He built the band on a foundation created by the marriage of classical and rock music and the artists he idolized (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Queen, Yes, The Who, and Pink Floyd, and hard rock bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and the multiple lead vocalists of the R&B groups the Temptations and the Four Tops). He brought in Oliva, Kinkel, and Al Pitrelli to help start the project. O'Neil has stated, "My original concept was six rock operas, a trilogy about Christmas and maybe one or two regular albums."The band's name has multiple connections to the group — the most important being that the band's first album slated for release in 1994 was a rock opera about the Bolshevik Revolution entitled "Romanov: When Kings Must Whisper." The Trans-Siberian Railway was built during the Romanov imperial rule and was used by many of the characters in the rock opera, from Leon Trotsky to Lavrentiy Beria. However, the album was put on hold. Eventually, the group turned in the first installment of the Christmas Trilogy as their debut album; as a result, their label kept pressuring O'Neill for the name of the band so they could go to print. In an interview he said,
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.
Plans interrupted
While Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva were preparing for the launching of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, their plans were brought to a halt with the death of Jon's younger brother, Criss Oliva, killed by a drunk driver. Realizing that, without a new Savatage album delivered quickly, Warner Brothers would likely drop the group and their catalog, they quickly delivered two new albums for Savatage. Not until they were sure that the Savatage situation was stabilized were they able to resume work on TSO.With Savatage stabilized Paul O'Neill decided it was time to launch Trans-Siberian Orchestra; however, the William Morris Agency had heard the rough demos and convinced Paul that it was too good to be a rock album. Owen Laster, Paul O'Neill's agent, not only got him thirty million for production cost but also helped him to obtain total creative control over everything produced by him.Christmas Eve and Other Stories and The Christmas Attic (1996–1998)
Their debut album, the first installment of the intended Christmas Trilogy, was a rock opera called Christmas Eve and Other Stories, and was released in 1996. It remains among their best-selling albums. It contains the song "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" which also appeared on Savatage's rock opera, Dead Winter Dead, a story about the Bosnian War. Their 1998 release The Christmas Attic, the sequel to Christmas Eve and Other Stories followed a similar format. This album produced the hit "Christmas Canon," a take on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major with lyrics and new melodies added.
Beethoven's Last Night (1999–2000, 2012)
"Beethoven's Last Night," was completed prior to "Christmas Attic" but not turned in to Atlantic Records until 1999 for release in 2000. Also in 1998, at the request of Scott Shannon of WPLJ they performed live for the first time in a charity concert for Blythsdale Children's Hospital. In 1999, at the urging of Bill Louis, a DJ for WNCX in Cleveland, they did their first tour, during which they debuted sections of Beethoven's Last Night, a third rock opera, which was released in the spring of 2000. They performed the album in its entirety for the first time during the spring tour of 2010. In October 2011, Beethoven's Last Night was released in Europe to coincide with their European tour with new cover art by Greg Hildebrandt and the missing pages of poetry from the original release.
On March 13, 2012, Beethoven's Last Night: The Complete Narrated Version was released by Rhino Records and available exclusively at WalMart stores, TSO's own webstore, and TSO concerts. This two-disc deluxe edition includes all of the music from the original release and, for the first time, the narration featured during live performances of the album. It comes packaged with a booklet filled with Greg Hildebrandt's illustrations of the story, plus the full lyrics and narration. The narration is performed by Bryan Hicks, who has been handling the live narration on the tours for this album. Creator Paul O'Neill explains, "This is how I have always envisioned the story being experienced. Where the listener can relax, close their eyes and within minutes be wandering the streets of 1800's Vienna with Beethoven on the last great adventure of his life."  The digital download of this release became available everywhere after the first thirty days of release.
"The Lost Christmas Eve" (2004)
When ever the band was off the road they returned to the studio and eventually completed The Lost Christmas Eve, the final installment of Christmas Trilogy, in 2004. The story is about a business man whose wife died during childbirth. When he is told that his new born son was cut off from oxygen for so long that he has suffered serious irreversible brain damage he abandons him to the state. The next year they combined all three Christmas albums and released them in a box set titled The Christmas Trilogy, which also contained a DVD of their 1999 TV special The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (Each of the albums still continue to be available individually.)