Since 2020, millions of fans have paused their lives when Rock Orchestra by Candlelight came to town. Each year, they gain more fans with their unique concept of rock and metal—re-engineered through a classically trained orchestra.

Rock Orchestra has fused the dark, hard-driving elements of heavy metal with the power and elegance of orchestral performance. They quickly established themselves in the rock world, gaining attention of rock fans and musicians in the U.S. and Europe.  

This year marks the group’s largest tour worldwide tour to date, with stops in more than 200 cities across the U.S., U.K., Ireland and Europe—uniting these two genres of music together for a global audience.

This week the tour rolled into Albuquerque, New Mexico, packing the Kiva Auditorium.  

As concertgoers filed into the Kiva, not quite sure what to expect, they were met with a damatic stage design: thousands of candles lit the space, two floor-to-ceiling stacked skulls pillars flanked the stage, and a massive skull in the middle hovered from the ceiling behind the drum set and keyboards. At each front corner sat oversized skulls with candles on their heads. Before the performance, there was a steady flow of people running down to the stage to capture selfies in front of the red and yellow stage lights.

The house lights lowered, and a booming rocker voice introduced the musicians. 

As the lights come up in the first three notes of AC/DC “Thunderstruck,” the crowd came to life, cheering with thunderous applause as they finished the song. From that moment, everyone was totally engaged in every song performed. Suddenly, we were not at an orchestra performance—we were at the ultimate hard rock concert, being performed by all our favorite musicians. The crowd clapped, yelled, and cheered as each song started, from Guns and Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” to Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.”  

Not every song was just instrumental. Two powerhouse singers—Erin Fox, with her strong female vocals, and Sky Murphy, with his booming powerful vocals—shared the stage, each brought every song they sang to life. Three songs that shined as standouts were: Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” where Fox nailed every note as a master vocalist, then Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life,” both leaving the audience sitting in awe as they finished the song. In the second half, Murphy come out on stage and paid tribute to Lemmy from Motorhead with “Ace of Spades.”  

Every year they keep bring in new songs and raising the bar on the selection of music they perform. I have been waiting for Rock Orchestra by Candlelight to come to my area—and when they did, I was not disappointed.

If they roll through your city, stop your life for two hours and soak in the music of maestros in the industry. You can also look them up on the following links. 

https://the-rock-orchestra.com

https://www.facebook.com/therockorchestrauk

https://www.instagram.com/therockorchestra