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Regularly commissioning and recording new works, he has made an inspirational and innovative contribution to the percussion repertoire.

At the age of fifteen Colin Currie won the Shell/LSO prize, and subsequently was the first percussion finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2002 for his outstanding role in contemporary music-making and was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award winner in 2005. Currie was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2003-2005, and as part of the scheme performed a variety of concerto and recital engagements with the BBC orchestras and in major festivals and concert halls. He is currently Visiting Professor of Solo Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.

Currie is deeply committed to the development of new repertoire for percussion in its widest form, including orchestral, solo and chamber music. Most recently he has premiered concerti by Jennifer Higdon, Simon Holt and Kurt Schwertsik, as well as music by Alexander Goehr, Steve Martland, Steven Mackey, Joe Duddell and Dave Maric, a composer he collaborates with on a regular basis.

During the 2009/10 season, Currie performs the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s percussion concerto Incantations with the London Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, followed by performances with co-commissioners the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony. Also in the US, he performs at Carnegie Hall with the St Louis Symphony and David Robertson in two concerti - Tan Dun’s Water Percussion Concerto and Bright Sheng’s Colors of Crimson - as part of the Ancient Paths, Modern Voices festival, which pays tribute to the vibrant culture and influence of China, as well as giving the North American premiere of Simon Holt’s a table of noises with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In Europe Currie performs in the opening concert of the 2009 Berlin Festival and at the BBC Proms in Xenakis’s Aïs, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson, as well as concerts with the BBC Philharmonic and Malmö Symphony.

Currie performs extensively as recitalist and chamber musician, collaborating in particular with Hakan Hardenberger in a duo recital for trumpet and percussion, a piano-percussion duo with Nicolas Hodges, and with the Pavel Haas Quartet. Currie has also collaborated with artists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Viktoria Mullova, the Labèque sisters, and jazz musicians Peter Erskine, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor. Recital appearances over recent seasons have included concerts at the Settembre Musica Festival with Nicolas Hodges, and with Hakan Hardenberger at the Verbier Festival, Bridgewater Hall, Hamburg Musikhalle, LSO St Luke’s and in San Francisco. Highlights this season include a solo recital and chamber music concert with the Pavel Haas Quartet at the Beethovenfest Bonn, and Currie leading a percussion ensemble event centred on Steve Reich’s iconic work Drumming as part of the International Chamber Music Season at the Southbank Centre.

Colin Currie’s latest CD release features Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto conducted by Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and this season he collaborates with the Pavel Haas Quartet in a studio recording of Alexander Goehr’s since brass…nor stone for the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. Currie’s recital disc Borrowed Time is available on the Onyx label, featuring music by British composer Dave Maric including solo percussion music and duos with trumpet and organ, and his first solo album, Striking a Balance, was released on EMI. He has also recorded concerti by James MacMillan and Michael Torke for Naxos.

www.colincurrie.com

www.intermusica.co.uk/currie

Colin Currie plays Zildjan cymbals and is a MarimbaOne Artist.
Colin Currie is represented by Intermusica. www.intermusica.co.uk/currie October 2009 / 621 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material

Concerto Repertoire

Highlights include concerti by James MacMillan, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Simon Holt, HK Gruber and Christopher Rouse.

* possible for chamber orchestra
+ work written for Colin Currie

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World premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s percussion concerto Incantations with the London Philharmonic Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Séguin
“Einojuhani Rautavaara's Incantations, a concerto for percussion and orchestra, manages to be both intensely innovative and highly conventional. Rautavaara's concerto is dominated by a resplendent opening orchestral fanfare, which returns at the work's close. The solo part is not, as one had feared, a massive crash-bang-wallop drum extravaganza, but a delicate and luminous invention of great expressiveness, with the marimba and vibraphone carrying much of the solo writing. Colin Currie's athletic playing was as dazzling and persuasive as the work itself.”
The Guardian, October 2009

“Incantations was written for, and in consultation with, Colin Currie, who gave a dedicated performance, complete with virtuoso cadenza of his own making.”
The Times, October 2009

At Carnegie Hall in the premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach
“The performance elicited a cheering ovation for the extraordinary percussion soloist, Colin Currie, and for the composer. Once the first section really takes off, the music is nonstop in its energy. There are frenzied outbursts and flourishes for the soloist on the marimba, vibraphone, blocks and drum sets. The concerto certainly provided a vehicle for the brilliant Mr. Currie, a limber, young virtuoso born in Edinburgh…. The jazzy and vehement cadenza, played on the drum set, gave Mr. Currie his Max Roach moment."
New York Times, December 2006

UK premiere of Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic and Marin Alsop
“Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto is a brilliantly crafted, brilliantly theatrical, display piece for its splendid dedicatee, the British percussion soloist Colin Currie. Progressing from throbbing marimba through clattering woodblocks to a drum kit from hell, Currie always found beauty in precision. Elegance too.”
The Times, December 2007

World premiere of Simon Holt’s concerto a table of noises with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Martyn Brabbins
“Currie’s virtuosic performance confirmed that the percussion repertory has been enriched. Brittle, unsettling and full of bite."
The Sunday Telegraph, May 2008

Duo recital with Hakan Hardenberger at LSO St Luke’s
“Currie attacked a sequence of fiendish solos, including Per Norgaard's Fire Over Water and Louis Andriessen's Woodpecker - the former joyously cacophonous, the latter more subdued, albeit fiendish in its rhythmic complexity. A solo percussionist is, of necessity, a musical athlete, and the brilliance of Currie's playing is inseparable from the thrill of watching him perform acts of tremendous dexterity that seemingly draw on endless reserves of stamina. Enthralling stuff, every second of it.”
The Guardian, February 2007

Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse & John Storgårds in Rouse Die Gerettete Alberich
“The American composer Christopher Rouse’s fantasy for percussion and orchestra, Der gerettete Alberich, provided the opportunity of discovering Colin Currie, a tremendous virtuoso. Installed in front of the orchestra amongst an impressive ensemble of percussion instruments, he roused the enthusiasm of the audience by his fantastic mastery of tone and rhythm.”
La Dépêche du Midi, May 2009

With the Los Angeles Philharmonic & Leonard Slatkin performing Rouse Die Gerettete Alberich
"The orchestra plays around with themes from the "Ring," while Alberich simply plays around. The character is delusional as ever. He thinks he's a pop star, so Currie, at one point, hopped on a set of traps. A wide array of instruments presents the wily little guy in an assortment of disguises. His visions of grandeur, while amusing, are not without their edge. Currie's magnificent performance of the delirious cadenza was both thrilling and a bit nerve-racking."
Los Angeles Times, August 2008

At the BBC Proms
“Last night, a great cheer went up for the charismatic Colin Currie, who is such an inspirational catalyst when it comes to contemporary percussion music. This concerto by Duddell looked much more difficult to play than it was to listen to, but Currie’s athleticism and musicianship were fully equal to it.”
The Daily Telegraph, July 2003

Performing with the New World Symphony and Marin Alsop
“British percussionist Colin Currie was a bold force of nature. Currie's dazzling feats of rhythm, speed, and dexterity were riveting. In an episode that mixed marimba with woodwinds, he produced streams of mellifluous timbres.”
The Miami Herald, April 2006

Currie performing MacMillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel
“MacMillan’s dramatic tour de force for percussion soloist and orchestra Veni, Veni, Emmanuel has become a best-seller in the concert hall, and there simply isn’t a better exponent than the charismatic Colin Currie.”
BBC Music Magazine, August 2007

“A showstopping performance from the percussion virtuoso Colin Currie. I’d never thought that drums could be so lyrical.”
The Daily Telegraph, January 2005

“Colin Currie’s account of the solo part was a tour de force…”
The Evening Standard, January 2005

“The score that fully gripped the imagination was the familiar, glamorous Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, with MacMillan conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Colin Currie the charismatic, athletic percussionist. ”
The Guardian, January 2005

These are featured projects related to Colin Currie:

Premieres
Explore the new works premiered by Colin Currie Simon Holt a table of noises Alexander Goehr Since brass, nor Stone... Jennifer Higdon Percussion Concerto Colin Currie performs the world premiere of Simon Holt 's percussion concerto a table of noises City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins: conductor Birmingham Town Hall 14 May 2008 Movements: jute / ghost one / fly / ghost two / a drawer...

Financial Times feature
Percussionists move into the limelight Financial Times, 5 February 2010 By Laura Battle You could call it a big bang theory. For centuries, percussionists laboured at the back of ensembles, adding rhythmical texture or climactic flourish to instrumental works but, more often than not, silently counting beats. As one disenchanted musician once put it, 90 per cent of the time he was bored to death and the other 10 per cent of the time he was...