Explosive Scottish percussion star to tour with NZSO

Turbo-charged Scottish percussion star Colin Currie will rocket around the stage playing as many as 20 instruments in the hotly-awaited Soundscapes national tour with the NZSO in September.

The critically-acclaimed 33-year-old virtuoso requires so much equipment that the NZSO needs an extra truck for its tour of Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Currie is famous for his athletic energy and electric stage presence. In his debut with the NZSO, he will perform charismatic concert hall bestsellers by two of the most successful living composers in Britain and America.

In Auckland and Wellington he’ll perform the Grammy Award-winning Percussion Concerto, written for him by American composer Jennifer Higdon. Featuring two marimbas, two vibraphones, bongos, tom-toms and many other instruments, the concerto more than doubles the Orchestra’s usual percussion requirements.

In a second programme in Auckland, Wellington, Napier, Christchurch and Dunedin, Currie performs James Macmillan’s thrilling Veni, Veni, Emmanuel – described as a “whip dance showpiece” of gongs, bells, drums and woodblocks, played with white-hot dexterity.

Thirty-year-old British guest conductor Alexander Shelley makes a welcome return to the NZSO for Soundscapes. Known for his precocious musical instincts and crystal clear technique, he will lead the Orchestra in some of the most emotional pieces ever written - including Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss.

Soundscapes, sponsored by The Radio Network, also features Beethoven’s popular Symphony No.6 (Pastoral) and the world premiere of New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell’s work for strings, Landscapes of the Soul.

www.nzso.co.nz



NZSO Soundscapes

The Radio Network Tour



Alexander Shelley conductor
Colin Currie percussion
Programme One
COPLAND Appalachian Spring Suite
HIGDON Percussion Concerto
CRESSWELL Landscapes of the Soul
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 (Pastoral)
Wellington / Fri 3 September / 6.30pm
Auckland / Sat 11 September / 8pm
Programme Two
BRITTEN Peter Grimes Four Sea Interludes
MACMILLAN Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
RAVEL Pavane for a dead princess
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
Napier / Thu 9 September / 8pm
Auckland / Fri 10 September / 6.30pm
Dunedin / Wed 15 September / 6.30pm
Christchurch / Thu 16 September / 6.30pm
Wellington / Sat 18 September / 3pm


Fast Facts

Edinburgh’s Colin Currie has been described as the new king of orchestral percussion

He has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras. He is known for regularly recording new percussion works

He is Visiting Professor of Solo Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague

The Higdon concerto includes improvised passages and rock and roll drumming. In Currie’s words: “[It’s] not only powerful and striking but tender and sweet at times, too”

He will lead two free public events while in NZ – a percussion day in Wellington on 5 September and a family recital on 11 September in Auckland

Alexander Shelley last appeared with the NZSO in November 2008

He is Principal Conductor of Nuernberger Symphoniker in Germany

A cellist, he comes from a family of professional musicians and studied at the Royal College of Music

He once told a journalist, “Give me any person, and I’d put money on the fact that I could find a piece that moves them”

Jennifer Higdon is one of America’s most performed living composers

Percussion Concerto won a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. It requires the soloist to play about 20 instruments

This year Higdon won a Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto

James Macmillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel is the pre-eminent Scottish composer’s most performed work

It requires the soloist to move between three stations of multiple instruments

Lyell Cresswell is a New Zealand composer of classical music living in Scotland

He has received multiple awards, including a 1979 APRA Silver Scroll for his contribution to New Zealand music