Colin Currie

Colin Currie | Percussion

Colin Currie | Percussion

Percussionist Colin Currie has established a unique reputation for his charismatic and virtuosic performances of works by today’s leading composers. He has appeared with many of the world’s most important orchestras – the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra among them.  Regularly commissioning new works, he has made an inspirational and innovative contribution to percussion repertoire.

At 15 Colin Currie won the Shell/LSO prize and subsequently was the first percussion finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition. He was awarded the RPS 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 is currently Visiting Professor of Solo Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Currie is deeply committed to the development of new repertoire for percussion in its widest form – orchestral, solo and chamber music.  He has premiered new concerti by Jennifer Higdon with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony; by Steven Mackey with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Residentie Orkest and Ensemble Orchestra de Paris; and by Michael Nyman with the Netherlands Philharmonic and Copenhagen Philharmonic.  Colin has also premiered works by composers such as Michael Torke, Thea Musgrave and Joe Duddell and future commissions include a new concerto by Simon Holt to be premiered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Currie has a close relationship with composer Dave Maric who has written a range of works for him.

Currie has performed extensively as recitalist in London and across Europe as well as in Tokyo and the USA. Highlights include the Lucerne Festival, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Paris Présences Festival, Klavierfest am Ruhr, London’s Spitalfields Festival and a tour with Christian Tetzlaff and other Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award Winners in Europe’s major concert halls.

An active chamber musician, Currie has collaborated with artists such as Hakan Hardenberger, the Labèque sisters, Petersen Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Viktoria Mullova, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, and Jazz musicians Peter Erskine, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor.

Colin Currie’s first solo album, Striking a Balance, was released on EMI. More recently he has recorded Michael Torke’s concerto Rapture with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Marin Alsop, and James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel with the Ulster Orchestra, both for Naxos.

For upcoming concert dates, see links below:
www.colincurrie.com
www.intermusica.co.uk