Biography

Is the only member of The Police who is American.

Copeland's father, Miles Copeland, was a trumpeter in Glenn Miller's Air Force Band, and later became a founding agent in the CIA.

He is fluent in Arabic, the main language spoken during his childhood.

Lived in Egypt and Lebanon for a time when he was young due to his parents' careers (his father was in the CIA and his mother was an archaeologist.)

Step-cousin of Courteney Cox.

Smile my friends, in show-biz you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Classical music was always going through my head. Even when I listened to Hendrix [Jimi Hendrix] I imagined strings around him. I was never into opera, though. I had a problem with the singers. That exaggerated vibrato. It obscures the melody. Then I saw Wagner [Richard Wagner]'s "Parsifal" and I got it - overwrought dramatic subjects and overwrought dramatic music sobbing with emotion. When the opportunity to write one came, I thought, "There's nothing wrong with opera that a good opera wouldn't fix".

When I was a film composer under a deadline those instruments would gather dust. And any time I spent hooting away on my bass clarinet just for the fun of it felt like time wasted. Then I came to the realization that it's not goofing off, that's what I'm here for.

I am a crusader, educating musicians who have the depth of talent for large-scale enterprises. I encourage them. It's really a lot of fun. It's magnificent when you hear the orchestra pump it out. Learning to score a chart is easier than learning French. There are fewer words and, being musicians, the people I'm talking about already have that covered.

I was not a big fan of opera. I didn't really "get" the first few I saw until I saw a David Hockney production of "Tristan". That was en education as to what it's all about with opera: the power, the majesty, the kick-ass of a big orchestra and a big story.