ELVIS SCHOENBERG'S ORCHESTRE SURREAL is a twenty-five-piece group of daring, top Los Angeles studio musicians, that fuses classical, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and world music into an hilarious, seductive melange. Combining eclectic musical styles with dancers, acrobats, performance art, and avant-garde comedy, the Orchestre Surréal creates an exhilarating theatrical spectacle, stripping away the barriers of cultural, generational, and artistic prejudice, and promoting the message of open-mindedness through art.
"If all art can coexist and become more enriched in the process, then so can all people." - Elvis Schoenberg
The Orchestre Surréal has performed at many prestigious venues, including the Knitting Factory, the Hollywood Cinegrill, the Whisky a Go-Go, the El Rey Theatre, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, and was featured on the 2005 L.A. County Holiday Extravaganza at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (simulcast on PBS). The Orchestre Surréal's three fully scripted musical productions at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood (Dismembering the Classics, Symphony of the Absurd, and Concerto for the Committed ) have received rave reviews and awards, including the 2003 L.A. Music Award for "Best Rock Opera" for Symphony of the Absurd.
"The band mixes sophistication and sarcastic rock effects in elaborate arrangements of moldy oldies with touches of Frank Zappa's wit and Spike Jones' humor."
- Josef Woodard, special to the L.A. Times
"Schoenberg and company have made a name for themselves as superb musicians and as performance artists who bring a robust theatricality and strong visual elements to the stage."
- Jane Emery, L.A. Splash
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