The group

Colin Currie

Hailed as “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” (Spectator), Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers. Championing new music at the highest level, Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and he performs regularly with the world's... read more leading orchestras and conductors.

A dynamic and adventurous soloist, Currie’s commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognised in 2015 by the Royal Philharmonic Society who awarded him the Instrumentalist Award.

From his earliest years, Currie forged a pioneering path in creating new music for percussion, winning the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000 and receiving a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005.

Currie has premiered works by composers such as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, James MacMillan, Anna Clyne, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Rolf Wallin, Kurt Schwertsik, Alexander Goehr, Andrew Norman, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly. Looking ahead, in the coming seasons, Currie will premiere new works by Andy Akiho, Helen Grime and Simon Holt.

Currie is Artist in Association at London’s Southbank Centre, where he was the focus of a major percussion festival Metal Wood Skin in 2014 and continues to perform there every season.

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Owen Gunnell

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Mallet Quartet, Music for Pieces of Wood

Adrian Spillett

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Mallet Quartet, Music for Pieces of Wood

Sam Walton

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Quartet, Sextet, Mallet Quartet, Music for Pieces of Wood, Clapping Music

Simon Crawford-Phillips

Piano; percussion. Plays in: Music for 18 Musicians, Quartet, Sextet, Music for Pieces of Wood

Philip Moore

Piano. Plays in: Music for 18 Musicians, Quartet, Sextet

Catherine Ring

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Mallet Quartet

Rob Farrer

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians

Richard Benjafield

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Music for Pieces of Wood

George Barton

Percussion. Plays in: Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians

Tony Bedewi

Percussion. Plays in: DrummingMusic for 18 Musicians

Rowland Sutherland

Piccolo. Plays in: Drumming

Adam Clifford

Percussion. Plays in: Music for 18 MusiciansDrumming, Sextet, Mallet Quartet

Colin Currie Group

Colin Currie Group is a virtuosic ensemble that specialises in the music of Steve Reich. Their performances of Reich’s music have been hailed by the composer as “the best I’ve ever heard”.

Led by Colin Currie (“the world’s finest and most daring percussionist”, Spectator), the hand-picked ensemble was formed in 2006 for a performance of Drumming at the BBC Proms to celebrate the 70th birthday of Steve Reich. In the subsequent decade, the Colin Currie Group have performed Drumming around the world. They have expanded their repertoire to include many of Reich’s most popular works, including Music for 18 MusiciansSextetTehillim and Music for Pieces of Wood and are privileged to have frequently had the composer present when rehearsing and performing these works.

See the Colin Currie Group’s official biography here.

Colin Currie Quartet

The Colin Currie Quartet was formed in 2018 to present exciting and adventurous works written for percussion quartet. The group is made up of Colin Currie, Owen Gunnell, Adrian Spillett and Sam Walton, who form the core of the Colin Currie Group, and in this new collective they perform works by Steve Reich and branch out into other composers who have been swept along by that highly influential force.

As some of the world’s leading solo, symphonic and chamber percussionists, each player of the quartet brings a different and insightful slant to the art of chamber percussion performance, and the group will be adding substantially to its repertoire in the coming years, including a dramatic piece for four drumkits by Julia Wolfe and a brand new quartet by British composer Dave Maric.

In 2018/19, their debut season, they performed at the NCPA Beijing, Wigmore Hall, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses and East Neuk Festival in Scotland.

Colin Currie Records

Colin Currie Records was founded in 2018 as a platform for Colin’s diverse projects, celebrating the extraordinary developments in percussion music over the past century. The first release on the label was Steve Reich’s Drumming, recorded with the Colin Currie Group & Synergy Vocals. The label released Colin Currie & Steve Reich Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton on 12 April 2019.

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