‘Incredible opportunity’: Wheaton native Sleeping At Last to perform holiday show with Chicago Philharmonic at The Auditorium

Musician Ryan O’Neal, a Wheaton native also known by his moniker Sleeping At Last, is back on stage after 10 years in the studio writing and recording.

The alternative/indie artist, who has a holiday-themed show with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra Saturday, Nov. 29, at The Auditorium, began playing live shows again this year with the group after deciding not to shy away from performing.

“I’m a nervous person, and I’m an insecure person,” O’Neal said. “So playing live is an act of vulnerability that has scared me for a long time. I decided a couple of years ago that I would really like to return to playing shows again, and as part of that, the way I wanted to do it was to do it with the full orchestra, and Chicago Philharmonic was this incredible opportunity.”

O’Neal has over five billion streams across platforms, and his work is featured in over 100 movies, shows and advertisements, including the “Twilight” franchise.

The Chicago Chamber Choir will also join O’Neal at the upcoming show titled “Home for the Holidays.” The performance will include songs from Sleeping At Last’s Christmas collection, as well as some of his other tunes.

“I wanted it to feel not like you’re fully, 100% going to an all-out Christmas show. But I really want it to be like a kickoff of the Christmas season, so it’s really 50/50,” O’Neal said.

Before his live show hiatus, O’Neal had never played with a full orchestra behind him. He says it was always a dream of his to do so, as well as to play at The Auditorium in Chicago.

“It’s one of the few rooms I’ve ever been in for music where it really, like, takes your breath away,” O’Neal said. “The scope and the scale of it — it’s just beautiful.”

This will be his first time playing the venue — located at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive — in a music career spanning 25 years. O’Neal is completely self-taught. He began playing the guitar as a teenager in Wheaton. The name Sleeping At Last was born when he was a young musician, and it’s stuck ever since.

“I was joking around with a friend — I had a poetry book in my hand — and I was telling him, ‘Hey, whatever page I turn to next, whatever that poem is called, that’s gonna be the name of my music,’” O’Neal said. “It was ‘Sleeping at Last,’ and it was by Christina Rossetti. It’s quite a dark poem, but something about that title, that name fit the music I was making at the time. And then, interestingly enough, it has fit my music even more as I’ve gotten older.”

O’Neal is comfortable labeling his music as “alternative,” but he says it’s up to interpretation.

“I’ve heard somebody describe it as like watercolor music, and I love that,” O’Neal said. “I think that there’s a flowiness, which is a terrible word. But there’s an ebb and flow to the kind of visual that you see with watercolor that I feel like actually does apply to my music.”

“Our collaboration with Sleeping At Last has been a deeply rewarding journey,” Chicago Philharmonic Executive Director Terell Johnson said in a press release. “Following the overwhelming response to our debut concerts with Ryan, we’re excited to bring his holiday collection to the stage with the same spirit of connection and artistry.”

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“Home for the Holidays”

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29

Where: The Auditorium, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago, (312) 341-2300, auditoriumtheatre.org/

Tickets: $53-$229 at tix.axs.com/