WINGER frontman Kip Winger is featured in a new Tucson Lifestyle Magazine article. Executive editor Scott Barker discusses Winger's upcoming production, Ghosts, with Tucson Symphony Orchestra. It appears below in its entirety.

Ghosts Story - TSO Masterworks

When Kip Winger arrives in Arizona this month, it will be like coming home. His mother has lived in Tucson for about two decades, he is friends with TSO composer-in-residence Dan Coleman, and back in the 1980’s Kip used to play guitar for Alice Cooper, a longtime resident of Paradise Valley.

“I love Arizona,” he says. “I go there a lot. I lived in Santa Fe for years so I love the desert. I really thrive in that environment. And it’s a special treat for me to come to Tucson for the premiere of Ghosts.”

Aficionados of classic arena rock groups remember Kip as the leader of the band Winger, well known for their intricate playing, lightning fast licks and unusually complex songs. But Kip, the son of jazz musicians, was always more than just an axe man. “When I was a kid I was really into impressionistic music,” he notes. “Later, I was in a concert hall in Amsterdam for a pretty typical classical show. On the program was Beethoven, Haydn and a the end they played Arthur Honegger’s Third Symphony , and it just blew me away. I started studying his music. And he was my template for the harmonic stuff that’s happening in Ghosts.”

Many a rock performer has forayed into other musical worlds --- sometimes successfully, some not --- and Kip was very careful not to be just another wannabe. “My approach was to study the real deal and find people who could teach me,” he says of embarking on his new career. “If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it the right way. I’d had opportunities to write pieces for some big people but I’d passed because I wasn’t ready. I’ve spent the last ten years honing my skills so my compositions sound very organic classically. So far I’ve gotten a very good response.”

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will world premiere Ghosts on Nov. 14 and 15 at Catalina Foothills High School in a concert that highlights Mendelssohn and Haydn (for tickets, call 882-8585). Not surprisingly for a multifaceted guy like Kip, there’s a fascinating origin to the piece. “I had a studio in downtown Nashville that used to be a hospital in the 1920’s, and it was a fairly mystical place,” Kip reflects. “When I was writing the first movement of this piece, I kept feeling like there was some sort of supernatural thing around me. And as I was writing the cello section the term ‘ghosts’ came to me. I sort of felt like I was around a bunch of them…like there were extra people in the room with me giving me that inspiration.”

Kip also has trained in ballet (which he says came in handy in learning to move gracefully on stage), and the first movement of Ghosts was actually written for dancer/choreographer Chris Wheeldon. A chamber music group in Austin, Texas, cut a demo of it, and he sent it to Wheeldon, who asked him to expand it to about 20 minutes. The finished version has four movements, and that’s what audiences will hear with the TSO. By the way, anyone looking for a preview should buy a copy of Kip’s 2008 album From the Moon to the Sun, which features a chamber music rendition of the hauntingly beautiful first movement of Ghosts.

Almost immediately following the performances, Kip will leave for a tour of Europe with the original lineup of Winger in support of the new album Karma. Though he won’t have a lot of time here, he is eagerly anticipating soaking up the ambience, and hearing Ghosts played in a concert hall. “I can’t wait to hear the whole thing played live…it will be the first time,” he concludes. “In the studio there’s always, ‘Cut! Take that again.’ It’s just not the same.”

The world premiere of Ghosts music will be with the Tucson Symphony November 14th and 15th, 2009. Check out www.tucsonsymphony.org for information. 'Ghosts' is taken from Kip Winger's latest solo album, From The Moon To The Sun, released in 2008.