Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Those who’ve followed Serj Tankian since System of a Down first went on hiatus have seen the singer follow a variety of muses, including a growing love of orchestral music. Tankian is now ready to take his biggest step yet in the orchestral direction by recording his first-ever full symphony record, and he’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to make his musical dream come true. Tankian first ventured into symphonic territory during support of his ‘Elect the Dead’ album when he invited several orchestras to help translate some of the tracks live. That resulted in the ‘Elect the Dead Symphony’ CD and DVD, and the project only enhanced his thirst for more, leading him to work on his first four-act symphony. The vocalist also intends to utilize an Austrian orchestra from his past tour with the idea that they will record Tankian’s work, as well as play it live for an audience. The singer makes his plea as follows: I am very excited to share my most personal, compelling musical project to date: my first-ever full symphony called ORCA. I have an incredible opportunity to record and perform ORCA live with the world renowned Das Karussell Orchestra (featuring members of the Bruckner Orchester) at Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria on Oct. 28th, 2012 and with your involvement and support, we can make it happen! While I have rearranged some of my past rock compositions to be performed as orchestral pieces, such as the Elect The Dead Symphony in 2010, ORCA is the first 4 act symphony that I have composed, a mix of early 20th century compositional styles combined with the powerful range of film scoring. I decided to name my symphony ORCA because orcas “appear to have no parallel outside humans” in terms of their cultural faculties. An orca is really a dolphin with much darker tendencies. I see this dichotomy as a great metaphor for humanity. Last year, I wrote and recorded a professionally sampled studio version with the goal of being able to record it properly with a full orchestra … this was not something I could capture in a small home studio. I was able to play with The Das Karussell Orchestra at Brucknerhaus during the ‘Elect The Dead Symphony’ world tour, which was an amazing experience. I shared my sampled recording of ORCA with them, and together we made plans for the live performance and recording to fully bring the work to life and share and distribute it to as many people as possible. We have put together many different ways for fans to get involved and be a part of ORCA from the ground up, all of which are outlined in this Kickstarter campaign. We tried to think of ways to give you every bit of music possible, and interactive, personalized experiences for those who can attend the show on Oct. 28th, and for those who can’t. Our goal is $25,000, which is the minimal cost for the recording. Any additional funds will be used to cover the expenses of mixing, mastering and promotion. We will keep you updated with news and progress so you are able to see what we do as this project grows. Please check it out and I hope to share this journey for ORCA with you all. Thank you for the support. Peace,??Serj At present, Tankian is attempting to reach the $25,000 goal, and he’s just under $15,000 shy with 19 days left to go. In order to help sell the idea, Tankian has come up with a number of rewards depending on how much fans donate to his goal. For a contribution as minimal as $1, fans will get a personalized email from the singer. Other tiers include such draws as CD packages, early downloads, autographed score sheets, t-shirts, album credits, meet-and-greet VIP tickets to the show, and lunch with Tankian. The top-priced package for those donating $10,000 or more includes all of the previously mentioned items, plus the opportunity to spend a portion of the recording day with Tankian and the Das Karussell Orchestra, executive producer credit on the disc, a professionally framed plaque with the ORCA score sheet, show poster, and personalized placard and the opportunity to join Tankian onstage at the show taking a bow after the performance. Watch Serj Tankian’s ‘ORCA’ Symphony Plea [button href=”http://loudwire.com/serj-tankian-harakiri-best-rock-songs-of-2012/” title=”Next: Serj Tankian – Best Rock Songs of 2012″ align=”center”]