The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is welcoming singer-songwriter Steven Page onto its stage this weekend to re-explore one of the biggest albums to come out of the British Invasion.

Page, Glen Phillips, Andy Maize and Craig Northey with the Art of Time Ensemble join the WSO Friday through Sunday, where they'll play Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a classic Beatles' album released in 1967.

"It's a pretty amazingly diverse group of musicians, but at its core band, it's essentially a classical chamber group," said Page, a former member of Canadian pop group Barenaked Ladies.

The group is run by classical pianist Andrew Burashko's and is based in Toronto. Page said he was drawn to the group due to Burashko's vision to bring artists from different fields together to make music.

Page has had the opportunity to perform some of his favourite cover songs with the group, including Abbey Road, The Beatles' eleventh studio album. That led Page and a group of 12 musicians involved with the ensemble to record a Sgt. Pepper's cover album, which they've already performed in parts of Canada and the U.S. on a smaller scale.

Now, Page and the group have decided to do a symphonic version with much bigger arrangements, which is what brought them to the WSO.

Page said he's excited to approach music from a different perspective.

"I love the fact that I have this kind of variety. If I only had to rely on promoting my new album and doing shows to support that, I think it could be really frustrating and depressing," Page said, adding the variety is welcomed change to the typical grind of playing clubs that touring musicians are accustomed to.

After Barenaked Ladies

Page and Ed Robertson formed Barenaked Ladies in the late 1980s. He and the Juno-winning band parted ways in 2009, after Page, and two women were arrested in July 2008 at the Fayetteville, N.Y., apartment where the two women lived.

Police allegedly found the trio with cocaine and marijuana and charged them with drug possession, but the charges were formally dismissed in the summer of 2009.

Page has since embarked on his solo career. While he is in a good place now, Page said it took a while for the full meaning of the break from the band to set in.

"It was as much my identity as my own identity is now, and I think that was probably the hardest thing,`Page said. "That was the longest change, was to realize that identity had been stripped in a way, but that I could embrace the history and legacy of that and be really proud of that."

The change was ultimately for the best, Page says, because it forced him to take stock of his creative desires and pushed him to forge ahead on a new path in the music industry.

While there's still a strong showing of Barenaked Ladies fans at his shows, Page said many others are connecting with his new music, which he finds inspiring.

"I approach the music as just part of the same journey. A song like 'What A Good Boy' off the first Barenaked Ladies record can still fit in a set with a song off my new record," he said. "The audiences; I've been so lucky with how they've accepted [it] as part of my musical personality. I don't have to feel like I am forcing new material down their throat and I also don't have to be ashamed by the old stuff."

The title of his latest album, Heal Thyself Pt.1: Instinct, is "more of an ironic joke," a hat tip to the haters online.

"Some of it is pointed toward the other stone throwers out there on social media, and a lot of people on social media are the most judgmental people in the world," Page said. "Most of those people have very little experience out in the world."

The title also comes from a deeper place of self-acceptance, Page said.

"Justify stuff to yourself and feel OK with it and walk through life." he said.

Page and the Art of Time Ensemble play with the WSO Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m.