Led by Colin Currie (“the world’s finest and most daring percussionist”, Spectator), the hand-picked ensemble was formed in 2006 for a performance of Drumming at the BBC Proms to celebrate the 70th birthday of Steve Reich. In the subsequent decade, the Colin Currie Group performed Drumming around the world. They have expanded their repertoire to include many of Reich’s most popular works, including Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Tehillim and Music for Pieces of Wood and are privileged to have frequently had the composer present when rehearsing and performing these works.

“Another performance that knocked my socks off was Colin Currie and his group doing Drumming at the Southbank this year. It was miked up high, it was expressionist, it was a brand new take. And I thought, Oh, we never could have done it that way.”
Steve Reich on the Colin Currie Group, Irish Times, July 2011

In 2014 the Group premiered Steve Reich’s Quartet (for two pianos and two vibraphones), dedicated by Reich to Colin Currie. Since the premiere at London’s Southbank Centre, the group have given multiple performances of this work, including across the UK, Europe, Asia and America. Reich is writing a major new ensemble work for the Colin Currie Group to be premiered in 2021.

The group’s highly anticipated recording of Drumming was released on Colin Currie Records in Spring 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds, fully supported by Steve Reich. The recording received outstanding reviews, being described by The Times as "Thunderously exciting" (March 2018).

The Colin Currie Group has appeared in concert at major halls and festivals worldwide, performing regularly at London’s Southbank Centre where Currie is Artist in Association and having made their international debut at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in 2012 and their European debut at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Other highlights have included concerts in the opening season of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, returning to Tokyo Opera City (March 2017), and performances at Paris Cité de la Musique, Cologne Philharmonie, Prague Strings of Autumn Festival, Rotterdam De Doelen, Glasgow Minimal Festival, Helsinki Festival, Macau Festival, Saffron Hall, King’s Place and the Barbican Centre.

Recent highlights include the release on Colin Currie Records of their second album of selected works by Steve Reich, taken from a residency at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in December 2017, programmed and performed at the composer’s request. The disc included works such as Pulse and Proverb, which the group performed for the first time, as well as Clapping Music performed by Colin Currie and Steve Reich. The recording received outstanding reviews and was selected for Best New Classical Albums by Gramophone, following on from their highly successful debut release Drumming in 2018. The group also made their debut in Southeast Asia at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore and returned to the Cambridge Music Festival where they performed Steve Reich Six Marimbas for the first time; for their China debut they took an all-Reich programme to Shanghai Symphony’s MISA Festival in collaboration with Synergy Vocals and Shanghai Symphony musicians.

In the 2019/20 season the Colin Currie Group make their concertante debut at Edinburgh International Festival performing Gubaidulina Glorious Percussion under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The group also give four sold-out performances of Drumming at the Hayward Gallery as part of Southbank Centre’s International Chamber Music Series. These performances will recreate the piece’s UK premiere which took place nearly 50 years ago, and are complemented by the gallery’s retrospective of the work of artist Bridget Riley. The group will also return to Kings Place as part of their Master Series in June 2020.

2019/20 season, 563 words. Not to be altered without permission.