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On October 11, the Art of Time Ensemble will take the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center stage to perform a re-imagined rendition of the Beatles’ groundbreaking album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Art of Time Ensemble is a collective of Canadian-based classical, jazz and pop musicians who fuse high art (classical music) with pop culture (recognizable Beatles tunes).

“Our original intent was to create an environment to disarm the audience while exposing them to classical music, to act as a bridge to high art,” says Andrew Burashko, founder and artistic director of Art of Time Ensemble.

The ensemble consists of a 12-piece band and four singers including Steven Page (former lead of the iconic band Barenaked Ladies), Wesley Stace, Andy Maize and Craig Northey. The ensemble will perform the album in its entirety including reinvented classics such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.”

“The challenge of reinventing the songs is to find that fine line where we don’t destroy the original spirit of the song,” Burashko says. “We approach it with reverence and respect.”

Burashko, who identifies himself as a huge Beatles fan, says the group is not trying to recreate the album note for note. Rather the ambitious undertaking is meant to be a new take on a rock and roll classic.

“All vocal harmonies and melodies are the same,” Burashko says. “That anchors everything so it sounds like the Beatles, but everything behind those vocals is reinvented.”

For ticket information, visit foxcitiespac.org.

Arts & Culture