Drummer will perform with orchestra in Nov

This November, The Police drummer Stewart Copeland is teaming with an orchestra to reimagine some of the band’s biggest hits. Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra focuses on the epic rise of Copeland’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 40 years.

“People are probably wondering what this drummer from a rock n ’roll band is doing with an orchestra anyway?” Copeland shares. “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 continues, “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 and more. I cut it all together and 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.”

The concert takes place Thursday, November 4th at The Soraya in Northridge, CA. It’ll feature Copeland drumming with Rusty Anderson on guitar, Armand Sabal-Lecco on bass, three singers, and a 28 member orchestra conducted by Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner Cheche Alara all performing orchestral reimagining of hits like “Roxanne,” “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” and “Message in a Bottle” as well as deep album cuts.

Tickets are $41 to $109 via The Soraya website.

Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged for Orchestra follows the 2019 Light Up the Orchestra Tour, a high impact symphonic celebration of the highlights of Copeland’s legendary career in music.