View source for Elvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surreal

{{short description|American musical group}}
{{refimprove|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| background      = group
| name            = Elvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surreal
| image           =
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| origin          = [[Los Angeles]], California, USA
| genre           = [[Experimental music|Experimental]], symphonic [[rock opera]]
| discography     =
| years_active    = 1997–present
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| website         = {{URL|http://www.theorchestresurreal.com}}
}}
'''Elvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surreal''' is a musical group founded in 1997 in [[Los Angeles]].  "Elvis Schoenberg" is the persona of composer Ross Wright.<ref name=bigentertainmentagency>[http://www.bigentertainmentagency.com/artists/orsu.html Elvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surreal], Big Entertainment Industry. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404014401/http://www.bigentertainmentagency.com/artists/orsu.html|date=April 4, 2009}}</ref>
==History==
The Orchestre Surreal was created by Ross Wright who created "Elvis Schoenberg" as an alternate persona. He derived the name from Austrian composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and American singer [[Elvis Presley]]. The group’s stated mission is to “boldly go where no orchestra has gone before.”<ref name=bigentertainmentagency/>
The group earned Best Rock Opera Of The Year, Best Orchestral Arranger, and Outstanding Performance Award by the [[Los Angeles Music Awards]] in 2003 and 2004.<ref name=bigentertainmentagency/> They have written and produced three fully staged [[Musical theatre|musicals]]. The first, ''Dismembering the Classics'', connected [[William Shakespear|Shakespearian]] works with [[classic rock]] tunes. The next was ''Symphony Of the Absurd'', which ran one night at the [[John Anson Ford Amphitheatre]].<ref name=bigentertainmentagency/>
The group has also marched in the Pasadena [[Doo-Dah Parade]].<ref>Mills, Michele J., [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=VDBB&p_theme=vdbb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0FC2C4957B90D0E2&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePMElvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surreal offers wake-up call], ''Inland Valley Daily Bulletin'', November 21, 2002.</ref>
==Configuration==
The group was designed to be able to perform [[Classical music|classical]] [[Orchestra|orchestral]] music, [[big band]], and [[rock and roll]]. The ensemble consists of three [[Woodwind instrument|woodwind]] sections, including a first section of three players who double on [[piccolo]], [[flute]], [[soprano saxophone|soprano]] and [[alto saxophone]], a second section with a flute and [[tenor saxophone]], and a third including a [[clarinet]], [[bass clarinet]], [[baritone saxophone]], two [[French horns]], two [[trumpet|trumpets]], a [[trombone]], and a [[tuba]]. The band also includes an [[electric guitar]] player who also plays [[sitar]], [[pipa]], and other stringed, [[fret|fretted]] instruments. There is a [[percussion]] section including [[Keyboard instrument|keyboard]], [[Bass guitar|electric bass]], and two [[Mallet percussion|mallet]] percussionists playing [[timpani]] and a wide assortment of [[hand percussion]]. Finally, there are two [[violin|violins]], a [[viola]], a [[cello]], and a [[contra bass]]. The size of the string section varies from 6 to 1 on a part.
Wright writes all the music for the group and is the group’s [[Conducting|conductor]].<ref name=bigentertainmentagency/>
Fronting the group are a variety of singers and performance artists, including Angela Carole Brown, Dan O’Callaghan, April Fissell, Susan Asbjornson, Jason Paige, and Becky Baeling. The musicians are working studio musicians who perform on [[Soundtrack album|Hollywood soundtracks]] of feature films.
==Critical reception==
In a 2003 review of a performance at the Ford Amphitheatre, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote that the group was "not merely content to perform shotgun marriages between the likes of Wagner and Nancy Sinatra, Mussorgsky and Santana, etc., [Ross Wright] (er, [Elvis Schoenberg]) took on a more ambitious task Friday night at the Ford Amphitheatre -- a 'book musical' of a sort called 'Symphony of the Absurd!' It was, as Ed Sullivan would have said, 'a really big shew' in which Wright incorporated many of his set pieces and some newer numbers into a hellzapoppin' revue, with an eclectic assortment of dancers, sexy girls, pulp novel narrations, lighting effects, dry ice."<ref>Ginell, Richard S., [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-22-et-ginell22-story.html 'Absurd' and more at Ford], ''Los Angeles Times'', September 22, 2003</ref>
==Discography==
* ''Air Surreal'' (1998)
* ''It's Alive'' (2003)
* ''Manic Voodoo Lady: Tribute To Jimi Hendrix'' (2009)
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:American experimental musical groups]]
[[Category:Musical groups from Los Angeles]]