Early Years

Colin Currie began his musical studies at the age of 5, going on to study at the Junior Department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...

 from 1990-1994. There he studied percussion with Pamella Dow and piano with Sheila Desson, both of whom had an enormous influence on him. He then went on to graduate from the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

 in 1998, and played principal timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

 and percussion with both The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland has provided music education and performance experience for young musicians throughout Scotland since its formation in 1979....

 and The European Union Youth Orchestra

European Union Youth Orchestra

The European Union Youth Orchestra is a training orchestra for young people in the European Union. It is funded centrally by the European Union and by a number of EU member states...

. However, solo-performance, and chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 had by that time become his main focus.

Colin 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

BBC Young Musician of the Year

The BBC Young Musician of the Year is a televised national music competition. It is broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Four biennially, despite the name, and hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation...

 competition in 1994. Colin Currie is considered as one of the most charismatic young artists in the world of contemporary music and seen as a catalyst for the creation of new music. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme was devised by BBC Radio 3 Editor Adam Gatehouse and launched in 1999. It exists as part of the BBC's commitment to nurture young musical talent. Every autumn six to seven young artists who are beginning to make a mark on the national and international...

 between 2003-2005 and received a Bortletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2005.

Career

Colin Currie now performs regularly with many orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

s and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

s around the world. He often commissions new music for percussion which he performs with orchestras and in recital, having worked with composers such as Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara is a Finnish composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius.-Life:...

 and Simon Holt

Simon Holt

Simon Holt is a British composer.-Biography:Holt was educated at Bolton School. Shortly after graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music, he became firmly established on the new music circuit with a series of commissions and fruitful collaborations with the London Sinfonietta and the Nash...

. Colin Currie leads percussion ensemble The Colin Currie Group which performs the music of Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

. He has made a number of recordings of contemporary percussion concerti and recorded a solo album “Borrowed Time” on the Onyx label, and his recording of Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...

’s Percussion Concerto won the 2010 Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition.

Colin Currie is Visiting Professor of Solo-Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, and is involved in educational and outreach work with a variety of age-groups.
In January 2011 Currie was appointed as an Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre for the 2011-12 season.

External links

• http://colincurrie.com/