Percussionist Colin Currie has established a unique reputation for his charismatic and virtuosic performances of works by today’s leading composers, and has appeared with many of the world’s most important orchestras – the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra among them. 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 
2009/10 season / 621 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material

• Concerto Repertoire
• Conductors
• Solo Recital
• Family concerts, Education and outreach events
• Steve Reich Drumming
• Duo recital with Hakan Hardenberger
• String Quartet and Percussion
• Duo recital with Nicholas Hodges
• Duo recital with Huw Watkins – new collaboration
• Other collaborations

Concerto Repertoire

Highlights include concerti by James MacMillan, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Simon Holt, HK Gruber, Kurt Schwertsik and Christopher Rouse. Click here for audio, video, press materials and further information on these works.

* possible for chamber orchestra
+ work written for Colin Currie

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Conductor relationships

Marin Alsop, David Robertson, John Storgårds, Hannu Lintu, Dougie Boyd, Thierry Fischer, Osmo Vänskä, James Gaffigan, James MacMillan, Yannick Nezet‐Seguin, Kwame Ryan, HK Gruber, Christoph Eschenbach, Yakov Kreizberg, Leonard Slatkin, Tan Dun, Baldur Brönnimann, Bramwell Tovey, Robert Spano, Gerard Schwarz, Roberto Abbado, Martyn Brabbins.

Solo Recital

Colin Currie’s solo recitals are dramatic and exciting events, full of fascinating music and performed on a huge array of percussion instruments. Colin will often introduce the works in a relaxed and informative way through the course of the programme. Highlights of his solo recital performances include at the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus etc.

Louis Andriessen Woodpecker
Dave Maric Sense and Innocence
Per Norgaard 'Fire over Water' from I Ching
Steve Reich Nagoya Marimbas
interval
Iannis Xenakis Rebonds B
Steven Mackey See Yah Thursday
Dave Maric Trilogy

“Colin Currie is a musician first and a percussionist second…The instruments were played with a wonderful range of touch….A marvellous concert which got the South Bank Centre’s Rhythm Sticks festival off to a flying start”
The Telegraph, July 2002

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Family concerts, Education and outreach events

Currie is actively involved in education work, as Visiting Professor of Percussion at London’s Royal Academy of Music and at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague. He regularly leads master classes, workshops and family concerts as stand alone events or connected to engagements, and is happy to take part in talks or other events.

Family concert programme
His solo family concerts are designed to introduce percussion to a young audience in a fun and engaging way, with on-stage participation and audience involvement throughout. The mixed programme has music from around the world including works influenced by Africa, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia:

Matthias Schmitt Ghanaia
Steve Reich Nagoya Marimbas
Per Norgaard 'Fire over Water' from I Ching
Steve Reich Clapping Music
Dave Maric Trilogy (Tamboo)

“The festival billed the event as a family concert in the mid-afternoon, and attracted a huge audience that included family groups and youngsters of every age. Was this audience intimidated or put off by the uncompromising music they faced? No way. Currie, completely unfazed by what must have been his youngest- ever audience turned the situation to his advantage, inviting groups of kids onto the floor to lay into his battery of drums by way of an introduction to the music of Per Norgard.”
Glasgow Herald reviews family concert at St Magnus Festival, June 2002

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Steve Reich Drumming

The Colin Currie Group was formed to perform Steve Reich’s iconic Drumming, a work which has built a huge following with audiences around the world. Colin Currie leads this dynamic group of virtuoso young percussionists combined with Synergy Vocals. The group first performed at the BBC Proms and have recently given sell-out performances in London, Birmingham and Perth, and will tour more widely in 2011 and beyond.

Click here to watch a short film of The Colin Currie Group performing Steve Reich's Drumming.

“Held together by eye contact, ear contact, intimate understanding of the score and collective breathing, the performance was both aurally and visually exciting – a work of art and also one of craft at its most disciplined and alert.”
The Independent, February 2010

“This was a mesmerizing performance from the Colin Currie Group, which was highly appreciated by the Queen Elizabeth Hall’s capacity audience”
Seen & Heard International, February 2010

“On Saturday night a new generation of musicians resurrected Drumming and brought it to Perth for a wholly different -and staggering -musical experience... Colin Currie put together an elite team of top UK percussionists and led them in a stunning, dramatic version of Drumming... young, fit, lean, fantastically musical and mind-bogglingly virtuosic. In their hands, Drumming was a continuum in four parts. This had direction, powering through the multi-bongo first section, beguiling the senses with the marimba marathon of the second, piercing the brain with the golden rainburst of glockenspiels in the third and culminating in an apocalyptic fourth section with everybody piling in.”
Glasgow Herald, April 2008

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Duo recital with Hakan Hardenberger

Colin Currie and Håkan Hardenberger’s outstanding duo collaboration connects two artists with a passion for dynamic new music and for performance at the highest level. Their charismatic stage presence displays a visible enjoyment of the music, matched by virtuosity and drama in equal measure. The relationship has already given birth to several specially commissioned new works.

Performances include at the Verbier Festival, London’s LSO St Lukes, San Francisco, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Hamburg Musikhalle, Hannover, Bruges and Birmingham.

Click here to watch Currie in recital with Hakan Hardenberger.

Programme for the 20010/11 season:
Joe Duddell Catch
Christian Muthspiel new duo work
Lukas Ligeti Tangle
*****
Tobias Broström new duo work
Louis Andriessen Woodpecker (solo percussion)
André Jolivet Heptade
Encore: Charlie Parker Donna Lee (arr. Rolf Martinsson)

“A breathtaking performance… Both players exhibited stunning virtuosity, though always at the service of musical effect, never for its own sake… These players had absolute command over their instruments. There was no gap between what they wanted to express and what they were technically capable of expressing.”
San Francisco Classical Voice, January 2008

“Hardenberger's style, generating tremendous emotions out of stillness, is the perfect dramatic foil for Currie's overt dynamism. The percussion layout resembled an altar, turning Currie into the celebrant of some arcane ritual; he goaded Hardenberger into a series of stylised responses, by turns ululating and ecstatic. Enthralling stuff, every second of it.”
The Guardian, February 2007

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String Quartet and Percussion

Colin Currie regularly performs with the Pavel Haas Quartet in a programme including Pavel Haas String Quartet No.2, a new work by Alexander Goehr and a commission for 11/12; performances at the City of London Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Prague Festival and BBC Proms.

Duo recital with Nicholas Hodges

Programme Includes Birtwistle The Axe Manual, Stockhausen Kontakte and Joe Duddell Paralell Lines – performances have included at Settembre Musica festival in Turin and Milan, and at the BBC Proms and the Wigmore Hall.

BBC Proms / Stockhausen Kontakte
“More striking was the 1960 work Kontakte, in which two virtuosos - the pianist Nicolas Hodges and the percussionist Colin Currie - provided a heroic live counterpoint to a cataclysmic recording. The spectacle of both players striding purposefully across the platform to thwack two huge gongs in perfect synchronicity with the electronic blitz has to be one of this Proms season's great moments.”
The Times, August 2008

“Another pioneering work, Kontakte, from 1961, in which electronic sounds are set against piano and percussion, was superbly delivered by Nicolas Hodges and Colin Currie…”
The Guardian, August 2008

“… it was the intricacy of Kontakte that pianist Nicolas Hodges, percussionist Colin Currie and sound projectionist Bryan Wolf revealed in their finely realised account.”
Independent on Sunday, August 2008

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Duo recital with Huw Watkins – new collaboration

Colin Currie forms a new duo with composer-pianist Huw Watkins, featuring a programme of music from the post-war avant-garde to the present day, including a new commission by Watkins.

Philippe Hurel Tombeau (piano and percussion duo)
Bruno Mantovani Moi, jeu (solo percussion)
Thomas Adès Mazurkas (solo piano)
Interval
Huw Watkins New work for piano and percussion – to be commissioned
Iannis Xenakis Komboi (harpsichord and percussion duo)

Other collaborations

Hebrides Ensemble: Colin Currie performs as guest with the Hebrides Ensemble during the 2010/11 season, in a mixed chamber programme:

Alexander Goehr Since Brass, nor Stone
Harrison Birtwistle The Axe Manual
interval
Peter Maxwell Davies Vesalii Icones

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George Tsontakis	Mirologhia Colin Currie, percussion Albany Symphony Orchestra David Allen Miller, conductor	Koch International Cl B001EQP9XW
Jennifer Higdon	Percussion Concerto (European première performance / Première recording) Colin Currie, percussion London Philharmonic Orchestra Marin Alsop, conductor	LPO - 0035 Grammy Award winner
Dave Maric	Borrowed Time Music for solo percussion by Dave Maric, with works for: Solo percussion; Percussion and electronics; Percussion and piano – with Dave Maric, piano; Percussion and trumpet – with Hakan Hardenberger; Percussion duo – with Sam Walton; Percussion and organ – with Clive Driskell-Smith.	Onyx ONYX4024
Pavel Haas	String Quartet No.2, Op.7 'From the Monkey Mountains' Colin Currie, percussion Pavel Haas Quartet	Supraphon SU38772
James MacMillan	Veni, Veni Emmanuel (percussion concerto) Colin Currie, percussion Ulster Orchestra Takuo Yuasa, conductor	Naxos 8.554167
Michael Torke	Rapture (percussion concerto) Colin Currie, percussion Royal Scottish National Orchestra Marin Alsop, conductor	Naxos 8.559167
Various composers	Viktoria Mullova: Through the Looking Glass Viktoria Mullova, violin Matthew Barley, cello Julian Joseph, piano Steve Smith, guitar Colin Currie, percussion Paul Clarvis, percussion Sam Walton, percussion Including works by George Harrison, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Bee Gees, Weather Report, Youssou N’Dour, arr. Matthew Barley	Philips 464 184-2
Various composers	LAGQ Spin Colin Currie, percussion Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Includes works by Joe Duddell, Steven Mackey, William Kanengiser, Andrew York	Telarc-CD-80647
Various composers	Striking a Balance: Contemporary Percussion Music Solo recital disc Includes works by Chick Corea, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Maurice Ravel, Ney Rosauro, Alan Emslie, Markus Halt, J.S. Bach, Steve Reich, Richard Michael Colin Currie, percussion Sam Walton, marimba Robin Michael, piano	EMI Debut CDZ 5 72267 2

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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:

Concerto Repertoire Highlights
Concerto Repertoire Highlights HK Gruber Rough Music Jennifer Higdon Percussion Concerto Simon Holt a table of noises James MacMillan Veni, Veni Emmanuel Einojuhani Rautavaara Incantations Christopher Rouse Der Gerettete Alberich Kurt Schwertsik Now you hear me, now you don't HK Gruber Rough Music Colin Currie performed the US premiere of Rough Music in 2008, with the Saint Louis Symphony...

Financial Times feature
Percussionists move into the limelight In-depth feature in the Financial Times covering Colin Currie’s performance of Steve Reich’s Drumming at the Southbank centre in February 2010 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...

Premieres: Alexander Goehr
Pavel Haas Quartet and Colin Currie perform a world premiere, Alexander Goehr's Since Brass nor Stone... Fantasia for string quartet and percussion Op.80 Pavel Haas Quartet Colin Currie: percussion Thursday 10 July 2008 St Andrew's Church, Holborn Programme:  Peter Maxwell Davies A Sad Paven for these Distracted Tymes Alexander Goehr Since Brass nor Stone... Fantasia for string quartet and percussion Op.8 (World première)...