Colin Currie Group

Colin Currie Group is a virtuosic ensemble that specializes 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 Reich’s 70th birthday. In the subsequent decade, the Colin Currie Group has performed Drumming around the world. The artists have expanded their repertoire to include many of Reich’s most popular works, including Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Tehillim and Music for Pieces of Wood and are privileged to have frequently had the composer present when rehearsing and performing these works.

Major highlights this season include the US premiere (earlier this week at Carnegie Hall) and West Coast premiere (at this evening’s concert) of Reich’s Traveler’s Prayer, with a further co-commissioned premiere to follow at Tokyo Opera City later this season. In October and November 2021 the group toured the world premiere of the work to critical acclaim, with performances at the Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, and Philharmonie de Paris. The group previously premiered Steve Reich’s Quartet in 2014 (for two pianos and two vibraphones), dedicated by Reich to Colin Currie. Since the premiere of Quartet at London’s Southbank Centre, the group has given multiple performances of this work, including across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the United States.

This season, the group also honors the 100th anniversary of the birth of Iannis Xenakis with a performance of the composer’s percussive masterwork Pléïades in a joint program with the JACK Quartet at London’s Southbank Centre in October.

The Colin Currie Group performs regularly at London’s Southbank Centre and has appeared in concert at major halls and festivals worldwide, including at Shanghai MISA Festival, Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore, Paris Cité de la Musique, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Cologne Philharmonie, Rotterdam De Doelen, Helsinki Festival, Macau Festival, Saffron Hall, and the Barbican Centre, and made its concertante debut at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival performing Gubaidulina’s Glorious Percussion under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Recent recording highlights include the release on Colin Currie Records of the group’s second album of selected works by Steve Reich, taken from a residency at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in December 2017. The disc includes works such as Pulse, Proverb, and Clapping Music performed by Colin Currie and Steve Reich. The recording received outstanding reviews and was selected for Best New Classical Album honors by Gramophone, and follows on from their highly successful debut release Drumming in 2018, and their release of Quartet on Nonesuch in 2019.

The Colin Currie Group is represented by Intermusica.