CCQ in Saffron Hall in March 2018
Cross-Atlantic Concerto Premieres for Helen Grime and Robert Honstein – and I get another letter after my name!
Another season to announce and another set of premieres from some truly wonderful creative individuals. The emphasis here must be on the individuality of these brilliant writers, as I am certain the new works from Helen Grime and Robert Honstein, amongst others, will attest. I’ve known Helen and her extremely powerful music for some time now, and we began talking of a concerto some years ago. Recent concertos for both Violin and Piano leave me very excited for what could happen for Percussion – the World Premiere of the new piece is in January 2019 with the London Philharmonic. Honstein is another hero of the poetic side of our art, the introspective every bit as powerful as the potential bombast, perhaps even more so in his colourful scores. I’d like to thank the long-standing supporters of the Albany Symphony for their commitment in making this concerto transition from wish-list to reality.
This year saw the launch of my record label Colin Currie Records (CCR) to spearhead the first commercial recording of Colin Currie Group (CCG) – and next season we will bring you Colin Currie Quartet (CCQ)!! This quartet of players forms the core of my ensemble and we wanted to branch out into a mixed programme that would feature not only Steve Reich but other new works and most especially a major new large-scale Marimba Quartet given to us by Kevin Volans. The first outing for this programme will be at Beijing’s spectacular NCPA in August 2018 and I am delighted to say that Sam Walton, Adrian Spillett, Owen Gunnell and myself will also be performing together at this year’s BBC Proms on July 15th as BBC Young Musician of the Year marks its 40th Anniversary with a gala event at the Royal Albert Hall.
The alluring pull of chamber-music-making has me in its grasp once again, and this season I begin my collaboration with the JACK Quartet. We start with World Premieres by both Suzanne Farrin and Simon Holt – and who knows where we will end up! This Quartet is a sensational group and I am thrilled to be joining forces with them for a new creative venture. There will also be a new chamber project entitled “Transfigured Nights”, with Alicia Weilerstein, Inon Barnatan and Sergey Khachatryan, music there by Beethoven, Schoenberg, Wallin and Shostakovich… so far!!
I will return to some familiar orchestras in the Seoul Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and with concertos written for me by Joe Duddell, Kurt Schwertsik, Mark Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Kalevi Aho and Andrew Norman’s ‘Switch’ multiple times.
As always, I hope many of you will make it to these live events. It is a privilege to share this fantastic music with you and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions to all the new notes next year!
Colin