Colin Currie
Colin Currie, wearing black t-shirt and black trousers, holds two drumsticks towards the camera, classical musicians are pictured behind him.
Currie in 2022
Background information
Birth nameColin David Currie
BornEdinburgh, Scotland, UK
GenresWestern classical music, contemporary classical music
Instrument(s)percussion
Years active1994–present
LabelsColin Currie Records, EMI Classics, BIS, Nonesuch, Ondine, LPO Live
Member ofColin Currie Group, Colin Currie Quartet
Websitecolincurrie.com

Colin David Currie is a multi award-winning Scottish virtuoso percussionist. He is the founder and leader of the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble specializing in performing and recording the music of Steve Reich.

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 from 1990 to 1994, where he studied percussion with Pamella Dow and piano with Sheila Desson, both of whom he cites as having an enormous influence on him.[1] He went on to graduate from the Royal Academy of Music in 1998, and played principal timpani and percussion with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and The European Union Youth Orchestra. However, solo-performance and chamber music 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 competition in 1994.[2]

Career

Currie is considered a charismatic and athletic percussionist[3] and seen as a catalyst for the creation of new music.[4]

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,[5] Louis Andriessen,[6] Einojuhani Rautavaara,[7] Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Rolf Wallin, Kurt Schwertsik, Simon Holt,[8] Alexander Goehr, Dave Maric, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly.

Currie founded chamber ensemble The Colin Currie Group which specializes in the music of Steve Reich,[9] and in 2018, formed the Colin Currie Quartet to perform works for percussion quartet.[10]

He won the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000,[11] was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist between 2003 and 2005[12] and received a Bortletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2005.[13]

He has made a number of recordings of contemporary percussion concerti and recorded a solo album, Borrowed Time', on the Onyx label. His recording of Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.[14][15]

In May 2015, Currie was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award for achievement in the UK during 2014.[16]

Currie has been Visiting Professor of Solo-Percussion in the Royal Academy of Music in London since 2005, and held the same position at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague from 2005 to 2009. He has been a staunch champion of education and outreach in music throughout his career, having worked with a variety of age-groups.

In January 2011, Currie was appointed as an Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre and still holds this position.[17] 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[18] performed works by Stockhausen and Steve Reich,[19] which Guy Dammann of The Guardian praised for being "technically impeccable and musically overwhelming".[20] In 2014, The Southbank Centre presented Metal Wood Skin,[21] a percussion festival dedicated to Currie. The festival included a number of new commissions, including the world premiere of Reich's Quartet for two vibraphones and two pianos and the UK premiere of Louis Andriessen’s Percussion Concerto, Tapdance, alongside new works by James MacMillan and Anna Clyne. In 2015, De Doelen in Rotterdam appointed Currie as Artist in Residence, during which, Currie debuted new works by Dave Maric and Reich. Later that year, Currie made his China debut with a performance at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (China) with the Miró Quartet.

In 2017, Currie launched Colin Currie Records, an independent label with distribution from LSO Live.[22]

In recognition of Currie's continued success, the Junior Department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland [RCS]) created the Colin Currie Percussion Competition and Prize.[23] In 2022, the RCS went on to appoint Currie as an Associate Artist.[24]

In October 2022, Currie was announced as the inaugural Ambassador for Chamber Music Scotland, a position he will hold until 2024.[25]

Over the course of his career, Currie has made 14 appearances at the BBC Proms, his first was in 2000, performing Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, aged 22.[26]

Recordings

Album/Single Orchestra/Ensemble Soloist(s) (instrument) Awards Label Year
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals Colin Currie Records 2023
Bryce Dessner: Tromp Miniature Colin Currie

(Marimba)

 Colin Currie Records 2022
HK Gruber Percussion Concertos BBC Philharmonic Colin Currie (Percussion) Colin Currie Records 2021
Kalevi Aho: Sieidi Lahti Symphony Orchestra Colin Currie (Percussion) BIS Records 2020
Colin Currie & Steve Reich Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals Colin Currie Records 2019
The Scene of the Crime Håkan Hardenberger(Trumpet), Colin Currie (Percussion) Colin Currie Records 2018
Steve Reich: Drumming Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals Diapason d'Or(April 2018)[27] Colin Currie Records 2018
Richard Rodney Bennett: Orchestral Works, Volume 1 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Colin Currie (Percussion) Chandos Records 2017
Elliott Carter: Late Works BBC Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Colin Currie (Percussion), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano), Isabelle Faust (Violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (Cello) BBC Music Magazine Awards, Premiere of the Year, 2018[28] Ondine 2017
CONTACT! with Alan Gilbert and David Robertson New York Philharmonic Colin Currie (Percussion), Eric Huebner (Piano) New York Philharmonic Label 2012
MacMillan: Veni, Veni Emmanuel Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic Colin Currie (Percussion), Gordan Nikolic (Violin) Challenge Records 2012
Rautavaara: Incantations Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Colin Currie (Percussion), Truls Mørk (Cello) Best Contemporary Recording, Gramophone Classical Music Awards, 2012 Ondine 2012
MacMillan, Adès and Higdon London Philharmonic Orchestra Colin Currie, (Percussion) Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, 2010 LPO Label 2010
Borrowed Time: Music by Dave Maric Colin Currie, (Percussion), Dave Maric (Piano), Håkan Hardenberger

(Flugelhorn and Trumpet), Sam Walton (Percussion), Clive Driskill-Smith (Organ)

 Onyx Classics 2007

References

  1. ↑ "Labels". Chandos Records. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "Winners of BBC Young Musician: all the winners and runners-up from the history of the competition". Classical Music. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  3. ↑ Ashley, Tim (19 January 2005). "MacMillan weekend (part 2), Barbican, London". The Guardian. London.
  4. ↑ Norris, Geoffrey (28 July 2003). "Proms 10: means fail to justify the end". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  5. ↑ "Boosey & Hawkes Composers, Classical Music and Jazz Repertoire". Boosey & Hawkes. 21 August 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "Colin Currie premieres Andriessen and Clyne". Southbank Centre. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "rautavaara | London Philharmonic Orchestra News". Londonphilharmonic.wordpress.com. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Simon Holt - a table of noises (2007) - Music Sales Classical". Chesternovello.com. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Artist - Colin Currie". Intermusica.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  10. ↑ "Colin Currie Quartet: Dark Full Ride • Contemporary • Kings Place". Kings Place. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  11. ↑ "Royal Philharmonic Society". RPS Music Awards. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  12. ↑ "BBC Radio 3 - New Generation Artists - Home". Bbc.co.uk. 1 January 1970. Archived from the original on 13 July 2007. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  13. ↑ "Colin Currie - Award Winner 2005 - Borletti-Buitoni Trust". Bbtrust.com. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  14. ↑ Dunkle, David N. (2 February 2010). "Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon scores a Grammy". The Patriot-News. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "Alumna wins Grammy for Percussion Concerto". Pennsylvania Gazette. 1 February 2010. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  16. ↑ "RPS Music Awards 2014: Instrumentalist". RoyalPhilharmonicSociety.com. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  17. ↑ "Colin Currie". Southbank Centre. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  18. ↑ "Playing the music of Steve Reich". Colin Currie Group. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "Superpower | Southbank Centre". Therestisnoise.southbankcentre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  20. ↑ Guy Dammann (11 November 2013). "Philip Glass Ensemble/Steve Reich/Colin Currie Group – review | Music". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  21. ↑ "Metal Wood Skin". Southbank Centre. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  22. ↑ "Labels". Chandos Records. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  23. ↑ "Student Prizes and Competitions". Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  24. ↑ "Colin Currie, Sean Shibe and Jennifer Wrigley join RCS as Associate Artists". Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 4 November 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  25. ↑ "Musicians - Chamber Music Scotland". chambermusicscotland.com. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  26. ↑ "BBC Proms". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  27. ↑ "Reich: Drumming". Presto Music. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  28. ↑ "Winners of BBC Music Magazine Awards 2018 announced". Classical Music. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
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