Colin David Currie (born 25 September 1976) is a Scottish

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. He is the founder and leader of the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble dedicated to performing and recording the music of

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...

Biography

Early years

Colin Currie began his musical studies at the age of 5. He attended the Junior Department of the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

from 1990 to 1994, where he studied percussion with Pamella Dow and piano with Sheila Desson, both of whom had an enormous influence on him. He then went on to graduate from the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

in 1998, and played principal

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

and percussion with the

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) caters for students aged between 8 and 25, through orchestras, jazz bands, training ensembles and outreach programmes. In addition to organising residential training courses, rehearsals and nati ...

and The

European Union Youth Orchestra The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is a youth orchestra with members drawn from the 27 members states of the European Union. Since its foundation in 1976, it has connected music colleges and the professional music world for generations o ...

. However, solo-performance and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

had by that time become his main focus. Currie first came to national attention when he won the Gold Medal of the Shell/LSO Competition in 1992, and was subsequently the first percussionist to reach the finals of the

BBC Young Musician of the Year BBC Young Musician is a televised national music competition broadcast wikt:biennially, biennially on BBC Television and BBC Radio 3. Originally BBC Young Musician of the Year, its name was changed in 2010. The competition, a former member of t ...

competition in 1994. Currie is considered as one of the most charismatic young artists in the world of

contemporary music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial ...

and seen as a catalyst for the creation of new music. He won the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

Young Artist Award in 2000, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist between 2003 and 2005 and received a Bortletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2005.

Career

Colin Currie performs regularly with many orchestras and conductors around the world. Well known for championing new music, Currie has premiered works by composers such as

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...

Einojuhani Rautavaara Einojuhani Rautavaara (; 9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara wrote a List of compositions by Einojuhani Rautavaara, gre ...

Jennifer Higdon Jennifer Elaine Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Award for Best Contempora ...

Kalevi Aho Kalevi Ensio Aho (born 9 March 1949) is a Finnish composer. Early years Aho began his interest in music at the age of ten, when he discovered a mandolin in his home and began to teach himself how to play it. He soon was taken under the tutelag ...

Rolf Wallin Rolf Wallin (born 7 September 1957) is a Norwegian composer, trumpeter and avant-garde performance artist. Biography Wallin was born in Oslo, where he studied with Finn Mortensen and Olav Anton Thommessen. He later studied at the University of ...

Kurt Schwertsik Kurt Schwertsik (born 25 June 1935) is an Austrian contemporary composer. He is known for creating the "Third Viennese School" and spreading contemporary classical music. Life Schwertsik was born in Vienna. A pupil of Joseph Marx and Karl Schisk ...

Simon Holt Simon Holt (born 21 February 1958) is an English composer. Biography Simon Holt was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 21 February 1958. Educated at Bolton School, Holt immersed himself in organ, piano and visual art during his sixth form years. ...

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic. Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...

Dave Maric Dave Maric (born 12 June 1970) is a British composer and musician. Biography Born in Bedford, England to Greek and Bosnian Serb immigrants, he moved to London in 1988 where he studied at City University. During the 1990s he regularly perform ...

Julia Wolfe Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are re ...

and

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras ...

. Currie leads percussion ensemble The Colin Currie Group which performs the music of

. He has made a number of recordings of contemporary percussion concerti and recorded a solo album, ''Borrowed Time, on the

Onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...

label. His recording of

's ''

Percussion Concerto A percussion concerto is a type of musical composition for a percussion soloist and a large ensemble, such as a concert band or orchestra. Two notable figures in the genre are the percussionists Colin Currie and Evelyn Glennie, who have separately ...

'' won the 2010

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In May 2015, Colin Currie was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award for achievement in the UK during 2014. Colin Currie is Visiting Professor of Solo-Percussion in the

in London and the Royal Conservatoire in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

and is involved in educational and outreach work with a variety of age-groups. In January 2011 Currie was appointed as an Artist in Residence at London's

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

and still holds the position. In recent seasons, Currie has been a central figure in festivals hosted by the Southbank Centre. In autumn 2013 as part of the festival The Rest is Noise, Currie and members of the Colin Currie Group performed works by

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

and Steve Reich, which Guy Dammann of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised for being "technically impeccable and musically overwhelming". In 2014, The Southbank Centre presented Metal Wood Skin, a percussion festival dedicated to Currie. The festival included a number of new commissions, including the world premiere of Reich's ''

Quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

'' for two vibraphones and two pianos and the UK premiere of

’s ''Percussion Concerto'', Tapdance, alongside new works by

James MacMillan Sir James Loy MacMillan, (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Early life MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977. His father is James MacMi ...

and

Anna Clyne Anna Clyne (born 9 March 1980, in London) is an English composer, now resident in New York, US. She has worked in both acoustic music and electro-acoustic music. Biography Clyne began writing music as a child, completing her first composition a ...

De Doelen De Doelen is a concert venue and convention centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was originally built in 1934 but then destroyed in 1940 during the German bombardment of Rotterdam in May 1940 at the outset of World War II. It was rebuilt in 19 ...

in Rotterdam have appointed Currie as their Red Sofa Artist, a role that involves collaboration with

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (RPhO; nl, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest) is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Rotterdam. Its primary venue is the concert hall De Doelen. The RPhO is considered one of the Netherlands' two principal orc ...

and other artists. During this time, Currie is set to debut more compositions, including new works by

and Reich.

Personal life

Currie enjoys theater and biking in his spare time.

References

External links

*
Interview on The Next Track podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Currie, Colin 1976 births Living people Scottish percussionists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Place of birth missing (living people) EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists