Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Trans-Siberian Orchestra has long enjoyed greater success moving concert tickets than studio albums, blending the sound of a 60-piece orchestra and chorus with the input of veteran hard rock producer Paul O'Neill. Their first release, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, reached stores in time for the 1996 holiday season and later earned triple-platinum certification in the United States. The Christmas Attic arrived two years afterward, followed in 2000 by Beethoven's Last Night, the band's earliest project without a seasonal focus. The live DVD The Ghosts of Christmas Eve surfaced in 2001 and has since become a recurring PBS pledge incentive.

The Lost Christmas Eve, issued as the group's fourth album in 2004, generated its strongest domestic sales since the debut. All prior Christmas recordings were subsequently gathered into the three-CD/one-DVD anthology Christmas Trilogy. After a five-year absence, the two-disc concept album Night Castle, unconnected to holidays, appeared in 2009. A five-song EP titled Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night) followed in 2012. Letters from the Labyrinth, their first full-length effort in five years and an uncommon non-concept release, reached stores in 2015. Late the next year the ensemble revived and refreshed the Ghosts of Christmas Eve stage production for a North American tour while issuing the original recording on audio for the first time. On April 5, 2017, Trans-Siberian Orchestra announced that founder O'Neill had died after a chronic illness.