Colin Currie

Scottish percussionist Colin Currie is regarded as a master of new music at the highest level and is hailed internationally as "the pinnacle of percussion art today" (Gramophone)

He is the soloist of choice for many of the world's leading composers and conductors and performs with the world's most important orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestra.

An ambassador of modern percussion music

From a young age, Currie pioneered the creation of new music for percussion and was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000 and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005. In 2015 he was recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society, who awarded him the Instrumentalist Prize. 

Currie has premiered works by composers including Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen and HK Gruber, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Sir James MacMillan, Brett Dean, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helen Grime, Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Andy Akiho, Rolf Wallin, Kurt Schwertsik, Andrew Norman, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly. In the coming seasons, Currie will premiere new works by Bruno Mantovani, Danny Elfman and Steve Reich.
A pioneer in contemporary music, Colin Currie has enjoyed a close working relationship with Kolberg Percussion for many years, as their modular combination stand system and globally unique range of instruments and mallets, manufactured in-house, are perfectly suited to his needs as a multi-percussionist with the highest standards. Colin Currie has been an official Kolberg Percussion Artist since 2021. Currie is also Artist in Association at London's Southbank Centre, where he took centre stage at the major percussion festival Metal Wood Skin in 2014 and continues to perform there every season.

Colin Currie Records


In October 2017, Currie founded "Colin Currie Records" in collaboration with LSO Live as a platform for recording his diverse projects dedicated to the extraordinary developments in percussion music in recent times.

The label's first release was the Colin Currie Group's debut recording, Steve Reich's Drumming, which was hailed as "Thunderously exciting" (The Times). In October 2018, Currie released the second CD, The Scene of The Crime, with Håkan Hardenberger, with the third release following in April 2019, Colin Currie & Steve Reich Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton, again with the Colin Currie Group.


Official website: https://www.colincurrie.com/


Watch & listen: https://www.youtube.com/c/ColinCurriePerc

Video with Colin Currie

Kolberg Artist Colin Currie performs “Asanga” by Kevin Volans (* 26. Juli 1949) – recorded 2021 at Kolberg Percussion in Germany, performed on Kolberg instruments and stands.

Mallets:
Colin Currie Uses the Multi-Percussion mallets, Plastic Materials 4 (804)

THE PIECE:
„Asanga“ by Kevin Volans is one of the most important works of modern percussion literature and an integral part of many concert and competition repertoires. The approximately 8-minute multi-percussion work is technically demanding and requires a high degree of speed and precision.

Kevin Volans is an Irish composer with South African origins, which he incorporates into his works. He studied in Cologne, Germany, among other places, and was a companion of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The Sanskrit title "Asanga" translates as "freedom from attachment". Kevin Volans writes: "I wrote the piece as a gift for Robyn Schulkowsky on the death of her father. It was written without conscious technique or concept. The first performance was in Stockholm in 1998."

Currie's product recommendation:

The Kolberg „Bass Drum Rebonds“ is a new standard of bass drum, that every multi-percussionist should employ. It has a wonderful, deep, and captivating tone - articulate but warm - and the mechanisms for height and angle adjustment are unmatched in the industry. A choice of heads is available and a wide range of pitches possible via the tuning system. I use the work in a huge variety of repertoire, from Tansy Davies, works by Xenakis and the Helen Grime concerto.

Photo Credits: Venera Red