The Warwick Theatre Announces the World Premiere of the Orchestre Surreal Chamber Ensemble

The Orchestre Surreal is the award-winning Los Angeles-based 40-piece hybrid orchestra that's been in existence since 1997. Its genre-twisting musical experience aims to provide a modern-day psychedelic music appreciation course, in the form of a performance event.

By cleverly and playfully combining classic rock songs with classical music, jazz, film music, and pop culture references, the Orchestre Surreal breaks the barriers of the standard orchestral experience with costumes, stage antics, and unexpected twists and turns, giving the audience an entertaining experience of the music they know in a completely new way. The subtext being that if all art can co-exist and become more enriched in the process, so can all people.

This time out, Elvis Schoenberg, the orchestra's conductor, is unleashing his 14-piece chamber version of the orchestra, for a more intimate yet equally power-packed music experience. And utilizing Kansas City's fount of great musicians, Elvis will introduce a largely Kansas City-based personnel, for the chamber ensemble's debut at the historic Warwick Theatre in Midtown KC. Joining Elvis, as usual, will be his lead vocalists: recent Kansas City transplant, "The Fabulous Miss Thing," and Nashville's own "Dangerous Dan O'Callaghan."

"Elvis Schoenberg. Or is it Howlin' Charles Ives? Ludwig Von Ellington? Thelonious Verdi? Finally, the thrill of listening to two radio stations at once, and that elusive and joyous moment when the melodies coincide. Good old technology, generally two laps ahead of the musician-composer, has literally filled our air with music: the car, the neighbor's upstairs window, the joggers headphones, the electronic chirping birds that let the blind cross the street, and the produce section at the market. To think that we can separate one influence from the other is as ludicrous as thinking we can pick out the nitrogen and hydrogen from a single breath. What is rare is that individual who not only acknowledges all that has assaulted his ears but has the mastery and skill to deconstruct it, re-construct it, and spew it back in a new and exciting form.

--- Martin Mull, actor and comedian

Friday and Saturday, October 15 & 16, 2021 @ 7:30pm, The Warwick Theatre, 3927 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. Tickets are available at: www.warwickkc.org.