The Meadows School of the Arts at SMU will honor Stewart Copeland, former drummer of the English rock band The Police and an acclaimed composer, as the latest recipient of their Meadows Award.

As part of the award, Copeland will complete an artistic residency at SMU this spring, during which will bring his artistic collaborators to Dallas and speak with students about his career.

He will also lead the Meadows Symphony Orchestra at the 31st annual “Meadows at the Meyerson” benefit concert on April 16, featuring a performance of “Police Deranged for Orchestra,” his full orchestral rearrangement of The Police’s best-known songs. It will be the first time the work will be performed by a collegiate orchestra.

Copeland's long career has included nine years with The Police from 1977-1986, as well as a composer for over 70 movies, including Rumble Fish, Wall Street, Men at Work, Wide Sargasso Sea, She's All That, and more. He's also composed work for TV shows, video games, ballet, and opera.

Copeland has received seven Grammy Awards through the years, most recently for Best Immersive Audio Album in 2023 for his collaborative album Divine Tides with Ricky Kej.

“The Meadows School is recognizing Stewart Copeland with the Meadows Award not only because of his prodigious gifts as a musician and composer, but also because of the unfailing dedication to artistic innovation and experimentation that has fueled his multidisciplinary career for nearly five decades,” said Samuel S. Holland, Algur H. Meadows Dean at The Meadows School of the Arts, in a statement.

“I’m honored to receive the Meadows Award and excited to share all I’ve learned through my career as a drummer and composer with Meadows students. I can’t wait to join the Meadows Symphony Orchestra on stage,” said Copeland in a statement.

First given out in 1983, the Meadows Award is given to an artist of national or international renown who has soared to the utmost height of their profession, one whose discipline is represented by one of the academic units within the Meadows School: advertising, art, art history, arts management and arts entrepreneurship, corporate communication and public affairs, creative computation, dance, film and media arts, journalism, music, and theater.

Tickets for Meadows at the Meyerson, taking place at Meyerson Symphony Center, are available from the Meadows Box Office, or online at smu.universitytickets.com.