Colin Currie
Recognised for his “athletic percussionism, compulsive showmanship and deep musicality” (Guardian), Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers. Championing new music at the highest level, Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
From his earliest years Currie forged a pioneering path in creating new music for percussion. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000 for his inspirational role in contemporary music-making and received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005. Currie has premiered works by composers such as Elliott Carter, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Kurt Schwertsik, Simon Holt, Alexander Goehr, Dave Maric, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly. He recently had the privilege of premiering a new work from Elliott Carter: a double concerto performed with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Aldeburgh Festival and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Upcoming commissions include new works by Steve Reich, James MacMillan, Louis Andriessen, Andrew Norman and Anna Clyne. Currie is Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, a role which allows him to develop relationships with artists and ensembles across a variety of art forms, as well as take part in collaborative and educational projects. In autumn 2013 as part of this residency Currie performs seminal works by Stockhausen and Steve Reich within Southbank Centre’s major festival The Rest is Noise.
Looking ahead, Colin Currie is the focus of a major percussion festival at Southbank Centre in autumn 2014, “Metal, Wood, Skin” which features a number of important premieres. Also in the 2013-14 season Currie will perform the world premiere of Tapdance by Louis Andriessen with Asko- Schoenberg/Reinbert de Leeuw at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Currie makes debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic, and returns to the Bergen Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Utah Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony among others.
In April 2014 Currie launches an adventurous new solo recital programme at the Wigmore Hall which includes the world premiere of a new work for solo marimba by Rolf Wallin, co-commisisoned by Wigmore Hall, Bergen Festival and Sound Festival Aberdeen. Currie’s dynamic percussion ensemble The Colin Currie Group continues to receive critical acclaim for its performances of Steve Reich’s iconic work Drumming. In 2013 the group made its European debut at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, following their hugely successful international debut with two performances at Tokyo Opera City in 2012, and this season The Colin Currie Group extends it repertoire, performing Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the Royal Festival Hall.
Currie regularly collaborates in recital and chamber music with a number of major artists, including Nicholas Hodges, Håkan Hardenberger and the Pavel Haas Quartet. Currie has recorded many concerto, recital and chamber works including most recently Alexander Goehr’s Since Brass, nor Stone released on NMC in September 2013. His recording of Rautavaara’s Incantations with the Helsinki Philharmonic/Storgårds (Ondine) was released to critical acclaim and won a 2012 Gramophone Award. Previous releases by Currie include MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic/MacMillan on Challenge Classics, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic/Alsop, which won a 2010 Grammy Award, and a recital disc Borrowed Time featuring music by Dave Maric (Onyx).
