Introducing Season 2013/14

Dear Readers! No sooner does season 12/13 end (as it did this month beautifully with Max de Wardener's terrific premiere in Bordeaux) than activities begin to launch and prepare for 13/14. The numbers keep going up and the premieres continue with great excitement, as does the context of my touring, educational work and special projects. Exciting times!

This season commences with a very honourable debut for me, in Brazil (my first time visiting this country and fulfilling a long-standing dream to go there). Four concerts with The Sao Paolo Symphony and regular collaborator and great friend Marin Alsop. The remainder of the autumn is taken up largely with a lot of study for the premieres later in the season, and two very important events for London's Southbank Centre where I continue as Artist-in-Residence. For my contribution to their year-long festival of 20th Century Music "The Rest is Noise", I will play Karlheinz Stockhausen's extraordinary "Kontakte" in October, and a concert with my own ensemble (The Colin Currie Group) and Steve Reich in November where we will debut with our version of his classic "Music for 18 Musicians". Booking is already strongly advised for both evenings!

In the new year, the premieres will start with Rolf Wallin's new work for Solo Marimba which is framed in the context of a brand new Solo Recital which debuts at London's glorious Wigmore Hall. Works include those by Bruno Mantovani, Elliott Carter, Toshio Hosokawa, Per Norgaard with further premieres by Dave Maric and Joseph Pereira. This recital will then tour widely in future seasons, often presented in the context of wider residencies at concert halls and universities.

April will introduce American composer Andrew Norman's new work for Solo Percussion and Symphony Orchestra with the fantastic (and long-standing colleagues at the) Utah Symphony Orchestra and Thierry Fischer. Andrew is an enormous talent, and this work promises great exuberance, explosive, colourful writing and dramatic use of the percussion family.

May 24th will see the Premiere of Louis Andriessen's "Tapdance" for Solo Percussion and Large Ensemble at Het Concertgebouw with The Asko-Schoenberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leuw. This project realises one of my deepest wishes, to collaborate with this incredible and unmistakable figure in new music, one whose music I have adored and respected since being a teenager.

Further exciting debuts include that with The Cleveland Orchestra, one of the world's most redoubtable ensembles, and local premieres for recent works such as the Canadian Premiere of the Aho concerto in Toronto, the UK Premiere of Elliott Carter's completed "Two Controversies and a Conversation", the German Premiere of "Incantations" by Rautavaara and a homecoming to Iceland of Askell Masson's Percussion Concerto.

With revisits to Bergen, Leipzig, Cincinnati and Houston there's continued coverage for works by James MacMillan and Christopher Rouse, whilst I also rekindle my collaboration with the wonderful Pavel Haas String Quartet, giving a Premiere with them by Czech composer Jeri Gemrot.

Lastly, 2013 saw the loss of a great friend and source of inspiration to me in my life, Mr Steve Martand, who died suddenly aged only 58. His encouragement when I was a student gave me so much energy and drive, and playing in his ensemble gave me amazing performance opportunities and the occasion to meet countless composers who are still writing for me today. His loss is devastating; he is an irreplaceable figure in music and in my life. If I may, I would like to dedicate this season to him, as my thoughts will be with him in every concert.

Best wishes, Colin

Announcing Season 2012/13 and four maverick Premiers!

Dear Readers! It's amazing to look back on the last 12 months and survey the works added to the percussion repertoire. With the greatest of enthusiasm, I can say that the landscape is in a state of constant creative flux and development - and with an enormous amount of stylistic variety too. All of the works premiered by me last season see repeat performances in the coming months - yet I am also very proud to focus on a new set of pieces that will be heard for the first time in the Season 2012/13. First of all, I give the Premiere of Dave Maric's Chamber Concerto "Towards Future's Embrace" at The Luosto Classic Festival in Finland. The ninth Premiere I have given by this composer, Maric is the writer whose work I have performed the most and who, arguably, understands my development as a player the best (we played in a band together when I was a teenager and have worked together ever since). This new ambitious work crackles with his typically syncopated energy, reflective and haunting expressiveness, and provides an opening for several lengthy (notated) solos on the timbales, realising a burning desire of mine!

Julia Wolfe writes a new concerto commissioned by the BBC, which I will play as part of my Artist-In-Residence arrangement at London's South Bank Centre. A long-standing fan of her music and the way she understands percussion instruments, their power and sonority, this work is my first collaboration with a Bang-on-Can composer and promises to be an entertaining and visceral addition to my repertoire.

For the third successive occasion, I am involved with the Premiere of the "test-piece" for the TROMP International Festival and Competition. This time, American sensation Nico Muhly is the composer in question. He is writing a Double Concerto for two percussion soloists, which I will premiere with each of the TROMP finalists in turn, allowing for perhaps a world-first for a composer - hearing a new work performed three times in one day each time with a different soloist! The piece promises to be a brilliantly inventive affair - sharp and highly imaginative. We (myself and the "the victorious")  tour it, with the Britten Sinfonia, around Europe later in the season.

Max De Wardener fulfils a commission from L'Orchestre National du Bordeaux Aquitaine for a special gala event that pairs his work with "The Right of Spring". This Premiere  will chart a very thorough and thoughtful investigation of the percussion sound-world, and De Wardener's broad and daring orchestral landscape has me raring to go for this new work.

Crucial though, as already stated, is the continuation of performances of recent works. As such, Einojuhani Rautavaara's "Incantations" gets a French Premiere, Simon Holt a German one, Elliot Carter's "Two Controversies and a Converstion"  will be heard in Paris, Kurt Schwertsik's Marimba Concerto arrives in the USA, and Joey Roukens has his fabulous concerto presented once again in Rotterdam by way of  triumphant return.  Kalevi Aho gets extensive play with Finnish, US, Swedish and Australasian Premieres, and Jennifer Higdon's concerto continues its inexorable success-story, a concerto I have played on average (more than) once a month for every month of every year since its Premiere in November 2005.

I kick the season off for three great orchestras - with The Oslo Philharmonic (my debut) which includes a tour to Austria's famous Graffeneg Festival, The Bochum Symphony (another debut) and with the terrific and close colleagues of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Other debut appearances include concerts in Luxembourg, Dusseldorf, Gothenburg, Singapore and with the Melbourne Symphony.

I'm pleased also to be focussing on Christopher Rouse's Fantasy for Percussion and Orchestra "Der Gerettete Alberich" this season, with concerts of this work in Germany, Portugal, Australia, with the Baltimore Symphony and, excitingly, with The Philadelphia Orchestra, which marks my return there following my debut in 2005.

Project work continues apace, with a US Tour together with The Miro Quartet including new works for percussion and string quartet (all written for myself) by Michael Torke, Steve Martland, Alexander Goehr and Dave Maric. The Colin Currie Group performs continually in the UK and, in a rich coup for the ensemble, tours to Japan with Steve Reich himself for two exceptionally prestigious concerts at Tokyo Opera City.

With two new Cds just released (MacMillan on Challenge Records and Rautavaara on Ondine) I hope to be reaching a big audience this season. Please stop by some of these events if you are able, and I do hope you enjoy this marvellous new music!!

All best wishes, Colin

On the premiere of Elliott Carter's "Conversations"

When I was 13 years old, my imagination was set scampering by Elliott Carter's "Variations for Orchestra" (1954-55). At that time  I was visiting the Edinburgh Music Library on a weekly basis, digging for treasure in the scores department. Those that exhibited modernist credentials were duly borrowed and among the Boulez, Berio and Stockhausen that I had on permanent renewal was the full score for the Carter. This music simply looked so fascinating on the page; its intriguing tempo games and crystalline instrumental details combining with an evident and monumental sense of drama. I managed to catch a BBC broadcast of the work played (brilliantly) by the BBC Philharmonic and putting the sounds to the symbols on the page was even more of a thrill that I imagined it would be. More than twenty years later I receive in the mail the full score for the now 102-year-old Elliott Carter's latest work, the "Conversations" for Solo Piano, Solo Percussion and Chamber Orchestra. The first light-headed chill and personal resonance comes in the very first measures; "Variations for Orchestra" starts with three discrete chords for the wind, strings and brass...and I see that, eerily, my new work begins with precisely the same aural-palette-cleansing device. I read on. And appear to have a modern masterpiece in my hands, a gem of scherzando wit and ebullience. I am humbled, but not enough to delay my race to the marimba to check out the licks and chords I will be playing shortly. They crackle and scream, they laugh and shock. This is going to be a lot of fun.

I had decided in the first place to inquire about this double concerto idea a couple of years ago. Carter seemed to be ignoring his advanced age, so I thought I'd do the same and ask Boosey and Hawkes about the idea of having him write a work for percussion and piano soloists with ensemble. I thought it might catch his imagination, especially in the light of recent works for percussion (the marimba Figment and Tintinnabulation), and the sensational ensemble pieces "ASKO Concerto", "Dialogues" and the "Boston Concerto".

Extremely happily, the premiere was with dear friend and close colleague Pierre-Laruent Aimard, plus new friends the BCMG and old friend Oliver Knussen. I have many great experiences from about ten years ago playing with Olly as a part of the London Sinfonietta (Andriessen and Henze at the Proms, Xenakis works), including the UK premiere of Carter's opera "What Next?" where I even donned a builder's hard hat as part of the concert performance. So it was with great zest and inquisitive spirit that we worked together again on this new work. The rehearsals were fascinating and I recall thinking at one precise moment (as a clarinet group of five suddenly transported us into a faster tempo where the same speed of notes were divided into groups of three) "Wow - a REAL Carter piece!"

At the premiere in Aldeburgh the work received hungry applause and we immediately played the piece from the beginning once again. Each performance is going to uncover something new with this work, and second time round I felt even more free to explore the latent mischief and expressivity within the work. In "Conversations", the final gesture of cackling winds and strings followed by soft extremities of register from the soloists leaves much ambiguity in the air...but one certainty also - Elliott Carter has much more to write.

Season 2011/12 - a season of four diverse concerto premieres

In announcing my 2011/12 season and the arrival of four new concertos into my repertoire, by Askell Masson, Sally Beamish, Kalevi Aho and Joseph Pereira, I'd like to say a few words about each of these works. Firstly, I do not recall a more diverse list of premieres in any season past, nor one with such great volume of music. The Masson and Aho are both complete and have taken on symphonic structures and proportions. The Masson develops many of his techniques and percussion tricks from over the years (I recently played his double concerto "Crossings" in Iceland") and followers of his idiomatic percussion style are in for a big thrill with a four movement work each with an ingenious set-up, culminating in a ferocious four-mallet percussion cadenza. The Aho will see me begin on hand drums - djembe and darbuka - then begin a steady journey from stage left, to stage right (where a tam-tam awaits for a brief solo-cadenza!) and back again over the course of a 30 minute work which will use the orchestra in his typically expansive way. Prominent roles for two orchestral percussion and timpanist promise a fine collaboration with my dear friends in the London Philharmonic - very exciting! The Beamish and Pereira concentrate on a more intimate sonority, each a concertante work with chamber orchestra. The Beamish promises a set of "dance variations" and we have spoken at length about the charm of this idea and how we can have me integrate within the ensemble to greatest effect. As always, it will be a great honour to perform with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra while the US Premire at Stanford Arts represents a debut for me including educational and recital events alongside. The Pereira will be a fantastic new piece for me with a long future ahead of it - Joseph is a greatly imaginative writer and I'm certain the work will be ambitious, fastidious, fun and full-on. And I get to collaborate with Gustavo Dudamel!!

Otherwise, I look forward to various debuts - Zurich, Aspen, Houston, Madrid and my Balkan debut in Estonia with HK Gruber. The tweets and facebook fanpage posts will be thick and fast, so clock on there for a more complete stream of how the season unfolds!

Many thanks for reading,

Colin

Four Fab Summer Festivals

The summer season can throw out some interesting opportunities and combine a diversity of repertoire with some of the more unusual or exciting performance venues. This year I had four exceptional experiences, which I felt combined well to describe the nature of what this time of year can bring... Styriarte Festival Graz, Austria

This trip was to meet up once again with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich to perform Bartok's "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion". As ever, I brought my partner in crime Sam Walton with me and we relished this concert in particular as PLA had programmed the Bartok alongside ( in some cases re-workings and new versions of) pieces by Ligeti, Steve Reich, Eotvos,  Nancarrow and Kurtag. It is such a great pleasure to be part of this quartet; Pierre-Laurent seems to know not of limits in music - and every moment of both rehearsal and concert show such care and consideration to sound and balance, clarity and projection. To be on-stage next to him as he embarks on a piece like Ligeti's Etude "Fem" is to hear instrumental achievement at its highest; it is astounding to hear such graceful and precise sense of timing, and such absolute control so excited by the spontaneity of the moment.

Sam and I also loved the city; the world cup was on and the place was very lively at night. We ran by the river, hired bikes and ate extremely well at the Santa Clara restaurant. As ever, the lottery attendant on hiring timpani abroad was not absent; my second drum only achieved a top 'e' by having its flimsy front leg generously gaffa-taped to the stage and by my applying an eccentric amount of pedal pressure, causing me to levitate momentarily above my timp-stool!

BBC Proms - Simon Holt concerto

After some careful deliberation as whether the Holt concerto would sink or swim in the vast space of the Albert Hall, all parties agreed that it would fare well and so it was that I got to play this masterpiece at the Proms this year. As it turned out, the music seemed to gain an extra set of legs(and teeth and arms and pincers!) from the greedy acoustic, and to play this work in this space proved to be an absolute career highlight. It was lovely to be paired up with fellow Holt-fanatic Thierry Fischer, and we had such a fascinating time teasing out the splinters of subtlety contained in this witty, boisterous and beautiful score. The solo movement was a splendid thing in the Albert Hall and I enjoyed bringing the whole thing down to a soothing stillness and out to full mania as the composer's scope encourages. This concerto is a major blessing for contemporary music and I am so glad it also received some pretty epic reviews from this performance.

Cabrillo Music Festival- Higdon

I made my debut at the Cabrillo Festival in 1996 aged 19 playing the MacMillan concerto. I returned in 2000 to play the Rouse but this was my first time since that occasion, so it was with many elements of nostalgia that I found myself back in Surf City USA. This is a remarkable festival, made up entirely of contemporary music; this year, every composer who had a work played attended, including Turnage, Glass, Adams and my own and highly beloved Jennifer Higdon. The orchestra is made up of enthusiasts for new music and is a terrific group. Part of this festival experience is contributing in one's own way to getting the word out to the public - and so it was that I found myself busking on a downtown metallic art-installation one night to get some publicity done for us all. You can verify this on Youtube as below![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_KryN-2v70]

I also had great experiences via my host, who treated me to walks in the redwoods, participation in a wine-making operation, and some great inside info on the hot spots to get good burritos, good coffee and good cocktails! I also had a surf lesson with Anna Clyne, which was terrific! I hope to take this forward somewhat in New Zealand next month - let's see what happens!

Grand Teton Music Festival - Higdon

Okay - who thought of this one!!? Let's place a major US orchestra at the centre of a high-end ski resort for seven weeks every summer in the most stunning and imposing surroundings imaginable!! Good on them, whoever they were for the Grand Teton Music Festival celebrates its 50th season next year - and I was mightily impressed with the entire experience this August. Wyoming is as spectacular a place as I ever saw - the Tetons themselves arranged in vast splendor before you even as you get off the plane(Jackson Hole is the only airport in the US situated in a National Park). This was a wonderful week of music making, and it was yet again such a thrill to play Jennifer's piece, which got a standing ovation at the open dress rehearsal. The hall they have there is also extremely fine, and the opening marimba murmurs sounded better than ever. River trips, hikes and various wildlife encounters delighted our visit(I was joined by my girlfriend Kerenza on this trip!) and the McBean apartment, not long vacated by Stephen Hough, was an extremely comfy crash-pad in which to cook, sleep and sit in the rocking chair on the balcony looking at the stars.

Back in London now, I'm gearing up for my New Zealand trip, which also promises many great things, this time accompanied by my father. Congratulations to Huw Watkins and Alina Ibrgimova also, on the premiere of Huw's Violin Concerto at the Proms which I was at last week. A great piece of music that inherits from Tippett and carries on somewhere else new and challenging.

Colin.