Colin Currie

percussion

Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist who champions new music at the highest level, hailed as being “at the summit of percussion performance today” (Gramophone). Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and conductors, performing with leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestras.

A dynamic and adventurous soloist, Currie’s commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognized in 2015 by the Royal Philharmonic Society which awarded him the Instrumentalist Award. Currie has premiered works by composers such as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Sir James MacMillan, Jennifer Higdon, Brett Dean, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helen Grime, Kalevi Aho, Julia Wolfe, Andy Akiho, Andrew Norman and most recently Bruno Mantovani, Gavin Higgins, Nicole Lizée and Danny Elfman.

Currie’s concerto highlights of the 2023/24 season include Nicole Lizée’s Blurr is the Colour of My True Love’s Eyes with Montreal Symphony and Freiburg Philharmonic, Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Utah Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and performances at the Cabrillo Festival, Tampere Philharmonic and Polish National Radio. Currie returns to the Grafenegg Academy in 2024 to coach, perform chamber music, and give the Austrian premiere of Andrew Norman’s Switch with the Grafenegg Academy Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. Currie began conducting the music of Steve Reich with the Colin Currie Group, going on to conduct Reich and other composers with the London Symphony Orchestra, Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, Grafenegg Academy, and Royal Academy of Music.

Currie curated the Hallé Orchestra’s Steve Reich festival in February 2024, conducting two orchestral programs, appearing alongside Jonny Greenwood, and performing chamber music with Hallé musicians and students from Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School. Currie will also play/direct a program with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – continuing his long collaboration with this ensemble – and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra.

Currie is Artist in Association at London’s Southbank Centre, an Artist in Residence at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and a Visiting Professor of Modern Ensembles at the Royal Academy of Music. In his role as Ambassador of Chamber Music Scotland, he will perform concerts across Scotland with the Colin Currie Quartet, including the premiere of a new work by Aileen Sweeney. Colin Currie Quartet will premiere a new work by Freya Waley-Cohen at the Wigmore Hall.

The Colin Currie Group was formed by Colin in 2006 to celebrate the music of Steve Reich and made its five-star debut at the BBC Proms. Since then, with Reich’s personal endorsement, Currie and his virtuosic ensemble have performed at many venues and festivals internationally. In 2021 they premiered a substantial new work by Reich, Traveler’s Prayer, which was commissioned by the Zaterdag Matinee at the Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, Elbphilharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, CAL Performances and Tokyo Opera City. Looking ahead, Colin Currie Group will perform Reich’s Drumming at Paris Festival Présences in February 2024 alongside a newly commissioned work by Connesson. In October 2017 Currie launched Colin Currie Records, in collaboration with LSO Live, as a platform for recording his diverse projects. He has released three Colin Currie Group discs including Steve Reich’s Drumming, hailed as “thunderously exciting” (The Times), a duo disc with Håkan Hardenberger, and an album of HK Gruber Percussion Concertos with the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena and John Storgårds. The most recent release on Colin Currie Records, Music for 18 Musicians, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and has received widespread critical acclaim, described as “a sublime and reflective recording” (Gramophone, Editor’s Choice July 2023).