"The performance elicited a cheering ovation for the extraordinary percussion soloist, Colin Currie, and for the composer..." New York Times review of Jennifer Higdon's Concerto.

COLIN CURRIE, percussion

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. Past commissions have included works by composers such as Simon Holt, Kurt Schwertsik, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon and Alexander Goehr, and Kalevi Aho whose new percussion concerto SieidiCurrie performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vänskä at London’s South Bank Centre in 2012. Currie has also had the privilege of commissioning a new work from Elliott Carter: a double concerto, Conversations, Currie premiered the original version of this with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2011 and then in its extended form, he premiered the new longer version Two Controversies and a Conversationwith the New York Philharmonic/Roberson. Upcoming commissions include new works by Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, James MacMillan and Louis Andriessen.

In 2011 Currie was appointed Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, a role which allows him to develop new relationships with artists and ensembles across a variety of art forms, as well as take part in collaborative and educational projects. Highlights of Currie’s 12-13 season include his debut with orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Saraste, Oslo Philharmonic/Saraste in Oslo and at the Grafenegg Festival, Goteborg Symphony/Roth, and returns to Philadelphia/Boreyko, Baltimore/Alsop, BBC Philharmonic/Storgards, Orchestre National de Toulouse/Storgards, Britten Sinfonia, New Zealand and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras amongst others.

Currie’s dynamic percussion ensemble The Colin Currie Group continues to receive critical acclaim for its performances of Steve Reich’s iconic work Drumming. Following sell-out performances throughout the UK including at London’s Southbank Centre, in 2012 the group makes its international debut with two performances at Tokyo Opera City, Japan. Other recital projects include a duo recital programme with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger featuring new commissions by Lukas Ligeti, Christian Muthspiel and Tobias Broström, which premiered in Hannover and the Far East in 2011.

Currie’s recording of Rautavaara’sIncantations with the Helsinki Philharmonic under John Storgårds was released to critical acclaim in February 2012 (Ondine), and his new recording of MacMillan’sVeni, Veni, Emmanuel with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic and James MacMillan on Challenge Classics has just been released. Previous CD releases by Currie include Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto conducted by Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which won a 2010 Grammy Award, and a recital discBorrowed Time, which features music by British composer Dave Maric and is available on the Onyx label.