Colin Currie Quartet release VR180 performance with ConcertLab

This week, Colin and the Colin Currie Quartet released the first film in a four-part VR180 series with ConcertLab.

Filmed at arm’s reach in Utrecht, “these episodes reveal contemporary percussion from within the circle — not as audience, but as fellow performer.”

Watch the group’s performance of Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet below:

Release Schedule: (One Episode Every Other Day)
1) 19 Oct | Steve Reich — Mallet Quartet
2) 12 Oct | Ben Nobuto — Daily Affirmation (CCQ Premiere)
3) 23 Oct | Steve Reich — Drumming, Part 1
4) 25 Oct | Aileen Sweeney — Starburst (CCQ Premiere)

Colin Currie play-directs world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür work

© Frances Marshall

On Friday 10 October, Colin will play-direct the world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Memoirs for Violin, Percussion and String orchestra at the Two Moors Festival, joined by violinist and Artistic Director Tamsin Waley-Cohen, and the United Strings of Europe. The piece was commissioned by the festival to celebrate their 25th anniversary, with future performances to be announced.

No stranger to Tüür’s works, Colin has previously performed the composer’s Percussion Concerto in Brno in 2015, which was broadcast on national television. Nearly a decade later, Colin and Tamsin approached Tüür to write this new work, as they felt his composing style had a deep understanding of both percussion and string instruments.

In three movements, Tüür explores how memories can mislead us while thinking about the past. The first movement “Shimmer” is about how memories are often idealised and shimmering, but details can no longer be distinguished. This is further developed in the second movement “Misty Mirrors” and leads to the third movement “Dancing Patterns” where “the spirals of memory have carried us into unfamiliar waters, where long-lost images and forgotten scents suddenly rise to the surface from the depths of oblivion”, as Tüür describes the development.

Read more about the work here.

Colin returns to the festival the following day as part of the Colin Currie Quartet, in a programme of Steve Reich and Anna Meredith.

Colin Currie joins Scottish Chamber Orchestra for major European tour and season opening concerts

© Frances Marshall

This September, Colin embarked on a five-city European tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, performing Sir James MacMillan's Veni, Veni, Emmanuel - a landmark percussion concerto that Colin has performed more than 150 times over the course of his career. 

The tour opened at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest (19 Sept) and Sibiu (21 Sept), followed by appearances at Bozar Brussels (25 Sept), Beethovenfest Bonn (26 Sept), and Philharmonie Essen (28 Sept), finally returning home for season opening concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth. 

““I now play about 90 per cent of it from memory – it’s a bit like a giant piece of chamber music.””

— The Scotsman

Read more about Colin Currie's performance of the concerto in his interview with The Scotsman.

This tour marks a highlight in Colin’s 2025/26 season which opened with a performance of Kalevi Aho’s percussion concerto Sieidi with the Porto Symphony conducted by John Storgards, and continues with a range of high-profile concerto, chamber and conducting engagements.

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.

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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