Colin Currie Quartet

The Colin Currie Quartet was formed in 2018 to present the diverse music written for percussion quartet. Comprising Colin Currie, Owen Gunnell, Adrian Spillett and Sam Walton (also core members of the Colin Currie Group), the Quartet performs a variety of adventurous works, centring on those by Steve Reich and composers inspired by his influential writing. As some of the world’s leading solo, symphonic and chamber percussionists, each player of the Quartet brings a different and insightful slant to the art of chamber percussion performance to collectively present “a sonic display of startling magnificence” (Observer).

Recent highlights include performances at the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Paris Présences Festival, GAIDA Festival, East Neuk Festival, Stoller Hall, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Dublin Chamber Music Festival, NCPA Beijing, Toolbox Hong Kong, Nagakute Cultural Center, NCPA Beijing and across the UK. Future performances include a number of premieres of new works by Guillaume Connesson, Anna Meredith, Freya Waley-Cohen, Ben Nobuto and Aileen Sweeney. During the 23/24 season, the Colin Currie Quartet present a new programme at the Wigmore Hall, perform at the Royal Welsh College and give a Scottish tour supported by Chamber Music Scotland.

 REVIEWS

“A sonic display of startling magnificence… The centrepiece was Drumming, tuned bongos impeccably synchronised, slipping and looping in and out of phase…  Julia Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride, crackling, eruptive, dangerous, made a noisy and spectacular finale.” Observer

“I have previously described Currie and his friends as daredevils and super-heroes, for their bravura performances of Xenakis.” Bachtrack

“In the opening number for wooden frame drums, John Luther Adams’ Qilyaun, the performers stood at all four corners of the auditorium balcony, sending out waves of unruly noise through rolling crescendos and decrescendos… at times it felt as if we were caught in a storm swirling round a vast open landscape, while at others a more synchronised regular beat filled the room with a sense of ritual.” Arts Desk