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THE DRUMMER OF TEDWORTH

World Premiere & Double Album Release

A Concerto for Speaking Drummer by Sean Noonan

Album Release (Noonan + London Symphony Orchestra):
📅 February 20, 2026 — Neuma Records

World Premiere (Noonan + St. Paul’s Sinfonia):
📅 March 30, 2026 · 7:30 p.m.
📍 Milton Court, London

A 365-year-old Gloucestershire ghost story turned surreal fantasy epic.

A drummer who speaks, dreams, and drums the universe into chaos.
A new kind of concerto.

What Is It?

The Drummer of Tedworth is the first full-length orchestral work ever written for a speaking drummer at the drum kit — a performer who sings, narrates, and improvises from behind the kit while fronting a symphony orchestra. An acting tour-de-force.

This boundary-breaking double album, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Jack Sheen, marks Sean Noonan’s orchestral debut, and stands as possibly the most extensive collaboration between an American artist and the LSO since Frank Zappa’s legendary recordings in the 1980s.

Fusing the scale of rock opera, the intensity of punk-jazz, and the surreal logic of the Theatre of the Absurd, The Drummer of Tedworth reimagines the concerto form as a metaphysical monodrama for voice, drums, and orchestra — a genre-defying journey into existential chaos.

At the center is Olis, a disembodied soul on a metaphysical journey in search of pnoom — a nonsense word for enlightenment beyond flesh. Inspired by the 17th-century haunting chronicled in Joseph Glanvill’s Seducismus Triumphatus, Olis’s quest takes him through cosmic mist, Martian pregnancies, trickster spirits, and sacred underpants — culminating in a mind-hijacking prank on Benjamin Franklin during one of his “air baths.”

The Album

Released worldwide by Neuma Records on February 20, 2026, this double album transforms the orchestra into an extension of Noonan’s drum kit — each movement a sculpted collision of rhythm and narrative.

This is not simply an orchestral work with percussion; it’s an immersive, voice-and-drum-driven story brought to life by one of the most experimental orchestral collaborations in recent years.

The Concert Premiere

📅 March 30, 2026
📍 Milton Court Concert Hall (Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London)
🎼 Featuring Sean Noonan with the St Paul’s Sinfonia, conducted by Darren Bloom

This performance brings the full theatrical vision of the work to life — a rare orchestral spectacle where the soloist is not only the rhythmic engine but also the central narrator of the tale. The story is suitable for the seriously adventurous of all ages.

Sound Meets Storytelling

The music unfolds in two acts:

Part I: Pnoom
Introduces Olis and the rupture in reality that sends him into the Féth Fiada, a liminal mist between worlds.

Part II: Hy Lies Ahead
Follows Olis’s descent through memory, absurdity, and cosmic mischief, culminating when the Martian Refugee gives birth to a body he can inhabit.

A New Form of Orchestral Expression

This concerto explores a novel fusion of voice and percussion, forging a symbiotic “fifth limb” between Noonan and the orchestra. Drawing on compositional ideas developed directly at the drum kit, the work treats the ensemble not as accompaniment, but as a spatial, rhythmic extension of the drummer’s limbs.

Across 21 episodes, the music resists traditional forms, blending improvised drumming, experimental orchestral writing, and rhythmic storytelling into a continuous, theatrical arc — a through-composed narrative where speech and rhythm are inseparable.

🎟️ Support the Premiere of The Drummer of Tedworth

Help bring this bold, genre-defying orchestral debut to life on March 30, 2026, at Milton Court, London.

Your support will help cover essential costs like:
• Rehearsing a 41-piece orchestra
• Conductor fees
• Concert hall rental

Contributors receive exclusive rewards, including:
• Early digital access to the album
• Signed double CD & full discography
• Behind-the-scenes content
• And much more

🎫 Please note: Concert tickets must be purchased separately.

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