Colin Currie makes his debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

© James Glossop

Fresh from a critically acclaimed performance at the Edinburgh International Festival, this week Colin travels across the Atlantic for his highly anticipated debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

On Thursday 7 August, Colin will perform in what will be the festival’s first-ever solo percussion recital. The programme will include the wide-ranging repertoire of Kevin Volans’ Asanga, Dani Howard’s Vasa (which Colin recently premiered at London’s Wigmore Hall), Tansy Davies’ Dark Ground, Andy Akiho’s Spiel, Toshio Hosokawa’s Reminiscence, and Rolf Wallin’s Realismos Mágicos.

On Monday 11 August, Colin is joined by New York Philharmonic Associate Principal Percussionist Daniel Druckman, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Percussionist Gregory Zuber, and Doug Perkins for Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet, before they unveil the US premiere of a new work by former Santa Fe Young Composer Freya Waley-Cohen: Stone Fruit.

Colin returns to the festival once more on Wednesday 13 August, joining an ensemble of Festival musicians for Artistic Director Marc Neikrug’s World War II–set “play with music,” Through Roses, narrated by Tony Award-winning actor John Rubinstein.

Colin Currie brings new collaboration with The King's Singers to Edinburgh International Festival

© Benjamin Ealovega / James Glossop

This weekend, Colin and The King’s Singers will debut a new collaboration in the opening music event of the Edinburgh International Festival, with a performance at the Queen’s Hall. The concert will feature a brand-new programme for marimba and vocal ensemble, including three commissioned works.

The programme will include Steve Martland’s Street Songs, a work premiered by The King’s Singers in 1997 and revived for this programme, alongside world premiere arrangement’s of Missy Mazzoli’s A Year of Our Burning and Roderick Williams’ Death be not proud, as well as the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s A Bunch o’Craws. Colin will also perform Bryce Dessner’s solo marimba work Tromp Miniature.

Listen to Colin discuss what excites him about working with The King’s Singers, the influence of Steve Martland, and the diversity of the programme in an interview with Intermusica:

Colin Currie Group brings 'Reich Repetitions' to Bold Tendencies

Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park © Bold Tendencies

On Saturday 12 July, Colin and his Colin Currie Group return to London with a performance at Bold Tendencies. Taking place in the open-air setting of Peckham’s iconic rooftop car park, the event forms part of the venue’s 'Déjà vu' themed summer, and marks a major highlight in the group’s season.

Titled Reich Repetitions, the group will perform an all Reich programme featuring the composer’s Music for Pieces of Wood, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ, and Six Marimbas.

Colin Currie Group recently met their aim of raising £15,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to record Steve Reich's complete Sextets, featuring Six Marimbas, as well as Sextet, Double Sextet and Dance Patterns. Read more about the project here.

Listen to Colin Currie Group perform Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood live at Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Embed Block

Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

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 returns to The Hallé for Steve Reich concert

Colin conducting The Hallé in their Steve Reich festival last year © Alex Burns

On Friday 27 June, Colin returns to conduct the Hallé at The Bridgewater Hall as part of the Manchester Classical 2025 festival. This follows his highly acclaimed conducting debut with the orchestra during the 2024 Steve Reich festival, where he also curated the programmes, and his immediate re-invite to take lead of their Philip Glass festival earlier this season.

This week, Colin will once again be joined by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on bass guitar, for a programme of Reich’s Clapping Music, Runner, Pulse and Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings. 

““Jonny Greenwood is very similar to myself as a Reich super fan...He would still be a musician without Steve Reich, but his life would not be the same. I would say the same thing about Radiohead, which would still exist without Steve Reich, but wouldn’t sound like the Radiohead that we know and love. He immediately jumped to the chance when I invited him.””

— Colin speaking to Bachtrack in 2024

Last year’s Steve Reich concert garnered rave reviews for Colin:

'A sublime tribute to a master of minimalism. Music with this range of appeal has surely attained the status of classic, and the wonderful performances of six of Reich’s works explained why... In the evening’s biggest piece, The Four Sections, we heard a stark ritual quality and solemn joy… the pulsating, radiant close, brought to a climax with staggering energy by Currie.'
The Telegraph ★★★★★

'The Hallé’s celebration of the 87-year-old composer, curated by percussionist Colin Currie, opened with masterly performances of his intricate works, including the shimmeringly beautiful Music for Ensemble and Orchestra… Tightly corralled by Currie – a conductor with a percussionist’s instinct for meter – shimmering washes of sound and aching melodies coalesced in moments of iridescent splendour.'
The Guardian

'The music embarks on a great arc shape, expanding and slowing down, as if time itself were stretching out. It was brilliantly done by the Hallé players with Currie conducting. We also saw the accompanying abstract film by Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz. Vivid pixel stripes morphed into rich patterns, saturated with colour and texture. The music mirrored its transformations — the effect was mesmerising.'
The Times

Colin Currie's Journey to Steve Reich’s ‘Sextets’

Support Colin Currie Group’s latest recording project

All good Steve Reich works come to those who wait. And in 2023 my ensemble finally cut its teeth on one of Steve’s finest and most pivotal works, as it is rightly held to be - ‘Double Sextet’ (2007). The occasion was a return to our regular home in Tokyo of their Opera City where three sold-out crowds awaited our Reich portrait with their usual unbridled rapture and vivid enthusiasm. ‘Double Sextet’, still seldom performed in relative terms, proved a wild hit for them and us, and we were able to send some rehearsal snippets to dear Steve along the way.

An email to me by return was ebullient, and began with the words ‘If you ever get the chance to record…’ and my goodness did that ever get me thinking.

If you were to play a Steve Reich numbers game, 6 would be the digit to which you would keep returning. Such tantalising denominators. So eminently divisible, lavishly so for a number so lowly - and utterly rife in his music. Take the main pattern of ‘Drumming’ for example, which is ‘officially’ spread over six beats. Does one always hear it that way? Sometimes it will sound more like three in the bar, or two, or even one. That magic number glints its eye, but as always, there is no right or wrong way to hear or feel this music. 

Furthermore, what if the ensembles duly created to carry these numerical codes also represented, keenly, this Platonic Form of that very ‘six-ness’? There’s certainly plenty visibility across Reich’s output to suggest this, and so an album of ‘The Sextets’ more or less fell into our laps and onto our abacus.

It is my desire to celebrate these works specifically as a cohesive unit. And as you might expect, with my favourite composer of all time, six of anything is good, but these works truly do stand alone. 

‘Sextet’ is a candidate for his most iconic work, and its opening sequence strikes a heart-stopping chord or two (or six). It always immediately transports me to a vibrant metropolitan boulevard in my imagination, grand pianos in high gear, and we have been lucky enough to work closely with Steve on this genuine piece of chamber music in London, Prague, and Helsinki amongst other countless concerts. 

‘Six Marimbas’ is almost scandalously fabulous in its multiple marimba portrayal, and although ‘just six’ marimbas, it can sometimes sound like many more. 

‘Dance Patterns’ is new to us and significantly under-represented on disc, and so we wanted to secure our own CCG version of this delightful and catchy rarity, and to introduce it to a wider audience who may well not be familiar with it. 

‘Double Sextet’ with its grinding rhythmic drive and tight ensemble swagger is ideally suited to the brazenly virtuosic musicians in my group, and our version gives out vast emotion, joy and gravity at both ends of the dynamic spectrum. This work shocks and caresses you, and it never ever fails to take my breath away.

Recording Steve’s music is an odyssey for me and with three albums already made, fast becoming a major part of his legacy. Please consider personally joining this powerful piece of posterity, by making a donation and securing ‘The Sextets’.

Colin Currie Group launches Kickstarter campaign

Launching today, the Colin Currie Group has created a new Kickstarter fundraising campaign for its next album, bringing the brilliance of Steve Reich’s sextets together on record for the very first time.

Hear more about the campaign from Colin:

The ambitious campaign seeks a total of £15,000 ($20,000 USD) investment to bring the concept to life, and includes a number of exclusive rewards, including meet and greets with Colin, copies of scores signed by Steve Reich, and even the opportunity to observe the recording.

Colin Currie releases new recording of Kevin Volans ‘Asanga’

Following the release of Tansy Davies Dark Ground earlier this year, Colin Currie continues his exploration of the realm of solo works for multi-percussion with Kevin Volans’ Asanga.

Taking its title from Sanskrit language, translating as ‘freedom from attachment’, Asanga is immensely energetic, yet the sonic canvas is limited to just six drums and two boisterous metal sounds.

Describing the work, Colin says Asanga is “stubborn and straight at first, but finally takes on the syncopated accents that are implied from the beginning of the piece. Eventually, the clangourous metals arrive, heralding the conclusion of the work, and a coda that circles back to the opening statement, yet has become alarmingly spacious.”

Renowned for his unwavering commitment to advancing new music, Colin masterfully captures the primal, punchy side of contemporary percussion performance with this latest single.

Download and stream now!

Volans’ Asanga will open Colin Currie’s solo recital at London’s Wigmore Hall on Monday 26th May in a programme that features works by David Horne, Tansy Davies, Andy Akiho, Toshio Hosokawa, Xenakis, and the world premiere of Dani Howard’s Vasa. Book tickets here.