The Wizards of Winter are, depending on where you start the story, either a husband-and-wife project that grew into a national touring operation, or the most logical extension of what Trans-Siberian Orchestra proved possible: a symphonic holiday rock opera, performed live by a full ensemble, that doesn’t ask the audience to choose between the rock and the pageantry. They play The Showroom at Turning Stone Resort Casino on Friday, December 11, at 8:00 p.m.
About the Show
Co-founded in 2010 by composer and keyboardist Scott Kelly and lead vocalist and flutist Sharon Joy Kelly — originally to benefit their local community food pantry — the group has evolved into an annual December touring act performing its holiday rock opera, The Christmas Dream. The show follows a theatrical narrative described as a “musical journey in search of the meaning of Christmas,” building from symphonic rock and ballads into what one critic reduced to the shorthand: “Think The Who meets The Nutcracker with a Pink Floyd light show.” The production includes interactive moments — snowballs, beach balls, and a Mrs. Claus appearance — and the band describes it as built for audiences ranging from age 8 to 80.
The ensemble carries considerable résumé: drummer John O’Reilly (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rainbow), bassist Greg Smith (Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent), vocalist-narrator Tony Gaynor (former TSO narrator), and vocalist Guy LeMonnier (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) headline a lineup that also draws on Broadway and theater veterans. The Verona date is one of 11 stops on the 2026 tour, which runs from Iowa and the Dakotas in late November through Pennsylvania on December 20. A live double album from the 2023 run — recorded without studio overdubs, as co-founder Scott Kelly described it, to get “as close as we could get” to a live performance — gives a measure of what the road show actually delivers. A PBS special drawn from that same run began airing in November 2024.
Venue & Logistics
The Showroom at Turning Stone Resort Casino seats 5,000 and occupies the resort’s core in Verona, in central New York, roughly between Syracuse and Utica. It’s a room suited in scale to a production running multiple lead vocalists, a string section, and theatrical lighting.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. A presale begins September 23, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. EDT; the general public on-sale follows September 25. Buy tickets