“Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra” is an energetic orchestral celebration of legendary rock star, composer, and founder of The Police, Stewart Copeland, with multi Grammy winner Cheche Alara conducting L.A.’s own Re-Collective Orchestra at The Soraya on November 4.
Hailed as “one of the greatest drummers of all time” by “Rolling Stone Magazine,” “The Rhythmatist” Stewart Copeland founded the legendary rock band The Police and is now a prolifically talented composer of opera, ballet, and orchestral music. He returns to The Soraya to dominate his drum kit alongside an orchestral reimagining of hits from The Police, including “Roxanne,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” and “Message in a Bottle.”
“Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra” is a fresh take on music created by one of the greatest bands of all time, The Police.
“People are probably wondering what this drummer from a rock n ’roll band doing with an orchestra anyway?” Said Copeland. “It stems from my 20-year career as a hired gun film composer. In film you use every form of music—band, electronica, and mainly you use orchestra. So, all those years I had an involuntary education in how to use an orchestra which is why I’m playing with a symphonic orchestra.”
He continued, “the ‘derangements’ arose from a film I shot back in 1978 when The Police was just rising up. I bought a Super 8 movie camera and shot the entire adventure and cut it into a movie. (“Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out,” 2013) Scenes in a movie put strange demands on music so I had to cut it up to serve the scene. One I got the scalpel out I had another frenzy of creativity because I got into the multi-tracks of the police recordings and found lost guitar solos, lost harmonies that Sting had done, experimental melodies, so I cut it all together and I’ve got these kinds of refreshed versions of The Police tunes. Some are very faithful to the original form, but some of them I’ve…deranged.”
“As we all begin the return to theatres everywhere, it’s a special delight in welcoming Stewart’s return to The Soraya with the Los Angeles premiere of The Police Deranged for Orchestra,” said Thor Steingraber, Executive and Artistic Director, “Stewart seems part of The Soraya family having performed his score for the 1925 silent film “Ben-Hur” several years ago, and now with this wonderful recalibration and celebration of the great music by The Police.”
“Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra” features Rusty Anderson on the guitar Armand Sabal- Lecco on Bass and three singers– Ashley Tamar (best known for her work with Prince, Carmel Helene and Amy Keys –along with Copeland himself on the drums. Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner Cheche Alara conducts the innovative 28-member, L.A.-based Re-Collective Orchestra. Together they will perform a combination of Police hits and deep album cuts that are sure to appeal to both casual and devoted fans alike.
“Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra” follows the 2019 “Light Up the Orchestra Tour,” a high impact symphonic celebration of the highlights of Stewart Copeland’s legendary career in music. “Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged or Orchestra” focuses on the epic rise of Stewart’s career in music that has spanned over four decades. With more than 60 million records sold worldwide, six Grammy awards, and induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Police – founded when Copeland recruited Andy Summers and Sting in 1977 – have been a defining force in rock music for over forty years.
When:
Thursday, November 4 at 8pm
Where:
Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya)
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91330
Tickets:
$41 to $109
818-677-3000
About Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland has spent more than three decades at the forefront of contemporary music as rock star and acclaimed film composer, as well as in the disparate worlds of opera, ballet, and world and chamber music.
Recruiting Sting and Andy Summers in 1977, Copeland is renowned as the founder of The Police, a band that became a defining force in rock music from the ’80s through to the present day. His career includes the sale of more than 60 million records worldwide, and numerous awards, including five Grammy awards.
Copeland moved beyond the rock arena in the mid-1980s when he returned to his classical roots with creative pursuits in concert and film music. His most recent concert works include “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ” which features Copeland as soloist in a live orchestral score for the 1925 silent film; “Tyrant’s Crush: Concerto for Trapset and Orchestra” commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, “Poltroons in Paradise” commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; and “Gamelan D’Drum,” commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the world percussion group D’Drum.
In 2017, The Chicago Opera Theater premiered Copeland’s surreal chamber opera “The Invention of Morel,” a co-commission with Long Beach Opera based on the novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Copeland has also written two operas based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe: “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” “The Sheriff of Luxembourg,” Stewart Copeland’s rousing new work for solo percussion and tape, was premiered by Christoph Sietzen in Cologne and toured in Europe throughout the 2018/19 season.
Recipient of the Hollywood Film Festival’s first Outstanding Music in Film Visionary Award, a Grammy nominee for his 2005 CD Orchestralli, and a 2003 inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Copeland has been responsible for some of the film world’s most innovative and groundbreaking scores. His numerous film scores include Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street,”,the seminal score for the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,” and the score for Bruno Barreto’s Oscar-nominated “Four Days in September.”
About Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya)
The 2021-22 Season marks the 10th Anniversary for the celebrated Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) located on the vibrant and diverse campus of California State University in the heart of Los Angeles’ equally diverse San Fernando Valley. Under the leadership of Executive and Artistic Director Thor Steingraber, The Soraya continues its vigorous commitment to innovating, exceling, and amplifying access by offering a wide variety of performances that include new and original work from the Los Angeles region as well as work from around the world that appeals to L.A.’s many distinctive communities.
After enduring a year without live performances, the 2021-22 season will offer a joy-filled reunion featuring a vibrant program of nearly 50 classical and popular music, dance, theater, family, and international events that will further establish The Soraya as one of the top arts companies in Southern California that uplifts and inspires its audiences.
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