Stewart Copeland on His Improv Chamber Music Quintet in NYC April 8, plus Snoop Dogg, Getting the Gig, and Being a Rockstar in a Classical World


Downtown Magazine

Copeland is that rare bird of rockstar in a classical world, a wide, wild fury of flailing arms, eye teeth, polyrhythms and flying drumsticks infiltrating the lush, regimented tradition of the symphony. Copeland is the guy that brings a trashcan to a concerto.

Stewart Copeland is a busy guy.

When Downtown spoke to Copeland in late March, he’d just gotten off a 3-hour conference call, score-doctoring his Adolfo Bioy Casares-inspired opera, The Invention of Morel.

This same conversation was squeezed onto his calendar between two weeks on the road supporting his rock/jazz/chamber music quintet Off the Score and four West Coast dates performing his live score to the 1925 silent film Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. This followed hot on the heels of his debuted percussive concerto The Tyrant’s Crush, which took place not long after debuting new orchestrations for his Edgar Allen Poe-inspired opera The Cask of Amontillado at Dixon Place, which happened simultaneously with a New Opera Showcase workshop of Morel at Trinity Church. . . .

Continue reading at Downtown Magazine.