Percussionist Colin Currie has established a unique reputation for his charismatic and virtuosic performances of works by today’s leading composers, and has appeared with many of the world’s most important orchestras – the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra among them.
Regularly commissioning and recording new works, he has made an inspirational and innovative contribution to the percussion repertoire.
At the age of fifteen Colin Currie won the Shell/LSO prize, and subsequently was the first percussion finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2002 for his outstanding role in contemporary music-making and was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award winner in 2005. Currie was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2003-2005, and as part of the scheme performed a variety of concerto and recital engagements with the BBC orchestras and in major festivals and concert halls. He is currently Visiting Professor of Solo Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
Currie is deeply committed to the development of new repertoire for percussion in its widest form – orchestral, solo and in chamber music. Currie recently premiered two concerti written for him: with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eschenbach a new percussion concerto by Jennifer Higdon, and a table of noises by Simon Holt commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Malmo Symphony. He has also premiered works by composers such as Alexander Goehr, Steve Martland, Steven Mackey, Joe Duddell and Dave Maric, a composer he collaborates with on a regular basis.
Following recent successes with the Minnesota Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester, Bergen Philharmonic and at the BBC Proms, in the 2008/9 season Currie makes his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl as well as performing with the St Louis Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Royal Scottish National Orchestra among others. Future commission plans include a concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara for the Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony, and a marimba concerto by Kurt Schwertsik for the Scottish Ensemble.
Currie also performs extensively as recitalist and chamber musician, collaborating in particular with Hakan Hardenberger in a duo recital for trumpet and percussion, a piano-percussion duo with Nicolas Hodges, with the Pavel Haas Quartet and as leader of a percussion ensemble event centred on Steve Reich’s Drumming. Currie has also collaborated with artists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Viktoria Mullova, the Labèque sisters, and Jazz musicians Peter Erskine, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor. The 2008/09 season includes a number of important recital and chamber concerts including at the Wigmore Hall and Settembre Musica Festival in Turin and Milan with Nic Hodges, and at the Bridgewater Hall and Hamburg Musikhalle with Hakan Hardenberger. Other recent highlights include the Lucerne Festival, Verbier Festival, LSO St Luke’s, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in San Francisco and Baltimore.
Colin Currie’s latest CD release features Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto conducted by Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also recently released a recital disc Borrowed Time on the Onyx label, featuring music by British composer Dave Maric including solo percussion music and duos with trumpet and organ. Currie’s first solo album, Striking a Balance, was released on EMI in February ’98 and he has also recorded concerti by James MacMillan and Michael Torke for Naxos. www.colincurrie.net.
Colin Currie plays Zildjan cymbals and is a MarimbaOne Artist.
Colin Currie is represented by Intermusica.
October 2008 / 557 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.