Praise for Colin Currie’s Steve Reich celebration with the Hallé

Colin conducts the Hallé at Bridgewater Hall © Alex Burns

Colin returned to conduct the Hallé Orchestra in an all-Steve Reich programme on 29 June at Bridgewater Hall, to enthusiastic reactions from critics and audiences. The concert was a revival of the Hallé’s Steve Reich festival in 2024 when Colin curated and conducted three programmes with the orchestra, after which he also returned to conduct the Hallé’s Glass festival in 2025.

"A spirited tribute to the veteran American minimalist Steve Reich. Under the expert direction of the virtuoso percussionist Colin Currie, the Hallé players managed to pack many sides of Reich into little more than an hour. Currie himself, joined by the Hallé’s principal percussionist David Hext, opened with Clapping Music. In its skeletal purity it couldn’t be further removed from Pulse, which weaves luscious, wistful counterpoints of strings and woodwinds over a gently throbbing bass line, beginning and ending with a gentle spaciousness reminiscent of Aaron Copland... the sparky 2005 work Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings was performed with terrific verve."
★★★★★ The Times, 30 June 2025

"The eager, energised figure of Colin Currie, the percussionist who is Reich’s most trusted performer and is now turning out to be a very capable conductor. Across an engrossing, mesmerising hour, the performers transported us to the streets of New York. We felt that thrill, and we were also reminded that Reich’s restlessly shifting patterns can be a vehicle for a surprising variety of feeling... Finally came the most substantial piece, Variations, which had a different kind of joy, conjured by long melodies over funkily syncopated accents and hammered chords. It was hard to sit still… In all, the concert was a wonderful beginning to the weekend.”
★★★★ The Telegraph, 1 July 2025

Looking ahead, Colin concludes his season performing a programme of Reich with the Colin Currie Group at Bold Tendencies on 12 July 2025.

Colin conducts the Hallé at Bridgewater Hall © Alex Burns

Colin Currie Group - Turnage New England Etudes (UK Premiere), Reich, Wallin, Wolfe at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

"A five-star percussive performance... Almost as much drama and tension came from seeing what was happening on stage as from the sounds... the sheer virtuosity of these musicians as they navigated the rhythmic and metric complexities of the demanding programme, often sporting wonderful expressions of pure concentration, had to be seen to be believed." *****
The Times, March 2024                                                                         

"Currie conducted the premiere; elsewhere he was very much one of the performers... It’s music that depends on immaculate precision, and like everything in the programme both pieces were played with almost casual virtuosity by Currie and his colleagues."
The Guardian, March 2024

Colin receives critical acclaim for performances with Scottish Chamber Orchestra

© Andy Catlin

Last week, Colin made his conducting debut to lead the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in sold-out concerts at Glasgow’s City Hall, and The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.

Colin built his programme around the music of Steve Reich, branching out to connected works by Louis Andriessen, Arvo Pärt and Julia Wolfe. The electrifying performance from the orchestra, under Colin’s direction, received a rapturous response from both audiences, which was matched by unanimous critical acclaim:

”Currie took on an astonishing range of roles, from informed and articulate compère to fluent, perceptive conductor, as well as ensemble player and even concerto soloist. Indeed, it was a remarkable achievement from Currie to both play and direct Louis Andriessen’s percussion concerto Tapdance, and Currie’s switching between roles laid bare the piece’s mechanics to revelatory effect.”
The Scotsman ★★★★★ - Read the full review.

”The American composer has been a mainstay of the Scottish musician’s work with his own percussion group. The second half of this programme presented another side of his work with two more recent pieces for small ensembles, which Currie directed with the sort of rhythmic clarity you might expect, cueing the players with precision.”
The Herald ★★★★★ - Read the full review.

© Andy Catlin

Dessner, Reich / Asko|Schönberg / Colin Currie - conductor

"Colin Currie, who earlier laid down a mesmerizing introduction with Bryce Dessner's Tromp Miniature, led Reich with a steady hand. The smooth music seemed to encourage the patterns to multiply kaleidoscopically, and could sound intensely red or pale blue, à la Richter's brush. Beautiful."
Het Parool, April 2023

"Things get more intense when Currie takes a seat behind keyboards with three more pianists (Saskia Lankhoorn, Pauline Post and Tim Sabel) for Steve Reich's Four Organs (1970)… the musicians stop playing at exactly the same time and that one second of spectacular silence only commands great admiration for their concentration and stamina."
de Volkskrant, April 2023

"…the ASKO ensemble produced a warm, swirling symphonic sound, taking full advantage of the Muziekgebouw's acoustics."
Basia Con Fuoco, April 2023

"A stage-wide screen starts full of coloured lines, one thinner than the other, blending into each other. Slowly, the lines develop into brightly coloured patterns that flow across the screen (with breathtakingly deep colour contrast for a projection, it looks like stained glass)… Behind that screen are fourteen musicians from Asko|Schönberg, who can very occasionally be seen through the images."
NRC, April 2023

Colin Currie Quartet, King's Place

“The Colin Currie Quartet made Kings Place resound with radical rhythms and technical precision…  This was rhythm as pure excitement, and it concluded a concert that richly explored the nature of music and rhythm.” Financial Times, January 2023

“A sonic display of startling magnificence… The centrepiece was Drumming, tuned bongos impeccably synchronised, slipping and looping in and out of phase...  Julia Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride, crackling, eruptive, dangerous, made a noisy and spectacular finale.” Observer, January 2023

"...raw fizzing energy of the percussion section from Julia Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride. By the end of the concert it felt as if we were not just listening through our ears but through every cell in the body as the vibrations charged and electrified the atmosphere." ArtsDesk, January 2023