“There is absolutely nothing like hearing the Beatles with a full, live orchestra,” says Jim Owen, who portrays John Lennon in Classical Mystery Tour, a Beatles tribute band.

The group will perform with the Temecula Valley Symphony at Temecula Valley High School’s Golden Bears Theater on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“This is a full show with orchestra,” said Alana Joos, the orchestra’s managing and artistic director. “The band replicates the very sophisticated sound of the Beatles in the studio. Every instrument is fully miked so the entire sound is balanced.”

“We don’t do special orchestral arrangements of the music,” Owen said. “We have all the original orchestration.”

The concert will include about 30 Beatles songs with the orchestra.

“You’ll hear ‘Penny Lane’ with a live trumpet section, experience the beauty of ‘Yesterday’ with an acoustic guitar and string quartet, enjoy the classical/rock blend on ‘I Am the Walrus,’ and relish the cascading orchestral crescendo on ‘A Day in the Life’,” said Owen, adding that the show includes two solo pieces, “Live and Let Die” and “Imagine.”

Classical Mystery Tour started in 1996 and since then has performed with more than 100 orchestras in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Owen has been a part of the show for 21 years. “It was something I felt from the very beginning was very important. The Beatles are so ingrained in most of us that when we get on stage, we picture the Beatles and it’s easy to get into character.”

Owen as Lennon, Chris Camilleri as Ringo Starr, Tom Teeley as George Harrison and Joey Curatolo as Paul McCartney sound a lot like the originals — and look like them, too, right down to the costumes from each of the Beatles’ performance eras.

“We take the audience from the black suits, through ‘The White Album’ and ‘Abbey Road,'” Owen said. “We open the show with the three or four songs from the ‘black suit era,’ then our first costume change in the first half goes from the black suits to the Sgt. Pepper period. In the second half, we have one costume change for the ‘Abbey Road’ era. It’s a very high-energy show.”

Audiences tend to be multigenerational.

“After the show, we meet the audience for photographs and autographs,” Owen said. “We’re always impressed that the 10-year-olds actually know the lyrics, mostly to ‘Yellow Submarine,’ while the teenagers know ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and ‘Hey Jude’.”

“We’ve been doing tribute concerts for the past few years,” Joos said. “We’ve had Cher and Elton John, Barbara (Streisand) and Frank (Sinatra) and Neil Diamond. Our audiences love these, especially as the shows fully engage our own orchestra.”

Conductor John Mario will lead the orchestra with the Classical Mystery Tour in front. Merchandise, including t-shirts and CDs, will be available after the concert.

Temecula Valley Symphony

With: Classical Mystery Tour

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: Golden Bears Theater, Temecula Valley High School, 31555 Rancho Vista Road, Temecula

Tickets: $35-$50

Information: 951-587-1536, www.temeculavalleysymphony.org