The Rock Orchestra By Candlelight came through Kingston in March 2026 — part of what was billed as the ensemble’s first expansive Canadian tour — and it’s coming back. The return is set for Sunday, May 2, 2027, at Slush Puppie Place, with Montreal the following night and a string of Ontario and Prairie dates running through mid-May. A second Canadian run inside 14 months is a reasonable indicator of how the first one landed.
About the Show
The concept is Nathan Reed’s, who created The Rock Orchestra in 2020 with the explicit goal of reimagining rock and metal “with all the grace and power of classical.” The formula is fixed: 14 classical musicians take the stage in candlelit surroundings and spend 90 minutes reworking the catalogs of Metallica, AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Guns N’ Roses, Linkin Park, System of a Down, My Chemical Romance, The Cranberries, Evanescence, Aerosmith, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones, among others. The ensemble describes the result as “a spellbinding 90-minute spectacle that infuses iconic Rock & Metal anthems with a hauntingly beautiful energy” — promotional language that 600-plus shows and more than 1 million worldwide guests tend to support. Strings and sweeping vocals carry the weight that distorted guitars typically bear; the gothic visual presentation is designed, in Reed’s own words, to “breathe beautifully dark energy” into songs the audience already knows well.
The Rock Orchestra operates as a rotating collective of musicians and vocalists; Reed is the creative constant. The debut album reached No. 1 in the Rock and Metal charts. Worth noting: the ensemble holds no affiliation with the artists whose work it reimagines. The Kingston date opens a leg that continues to Montreal (May 3), Sault Ste. Marie (May 11), Thunder Bay (May 13), Winnipeg (May 15) and Regina (May 17).
Venue & Logistics
Slush Puppie Place, a 6,700-capacity arena in Kingston, Ontario, is a considerably larger room than the performing arts centers and theaters this ensemble typically books across North America. That scale sits in some tension with the candlelit, chamber-concert format; it’s also precisely the kind of tension that fills arenas. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. This production may include strobe lighting effects; those sensitive to flashing lights or with epilepsy should take appropriate precautions. See our full north-country calendar for more upcoming shows in the region.
Tickets
Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, via Ticketmaster. No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets