Colin Currie & Håkan Hardenberger
Biography Colin Currie & Håkan Hardenberger
Colin Currie
Hailed as “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” (Spectator), Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers. Championing new music at the highest level, Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
A dynamic and adventurous soloist, Currie’s commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognised in 2015 by the Royal Philharmonic Society who awarded him the Instrumentalist Award. From his earliest years Currie forged a pioneering path in creating new music for percussion, winning the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000 and receiving a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005. Currie has premiered works by composers such as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Brett Dean, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Rolf Wallin, Kurt Schwertsik, Andrew Norman, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly. Looking ahead, in the coming season Currie will premiere new works by Helen Grime, Simon Holt and Andy Akiho.
In October 2017 Currie launched Colin Currie Records, in conjunction with LSO Live, as a platform for recording his diverse projects, celebrating the extraordinary developments for percussion music in recent times. The label’s first release was the Colin Currie Group’s debut recording, Steve Reich’s Drumming, which was hailed as “thunderously exciting” (The Times). In October 2018 Currie releases the second disc in this catalogue, The Scene of The Crime, which is a collection of works performed by Colin Currie and Håkan Hardenberger in their duo recital.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season include the world premiere of Helen Grime’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Marin Alsop in January 2019, followed by the US premiere with Alsop and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra later that month. The season is marked by a number of other premieres including new works for string quartet and percussion by Simon Holt and Suzanne Farrin with the JACK Quartet at the BBC Proms, a new Percussion Concerto by Robert Honstein with Albany Symphony, and the US premiere of Turnage Martland Memorial with Minnesota Orchestra/Vänskä.
2018/19 also sees the launch of the Currie’s new percussion quartet, Colin Currie
Quartet. A dominant premiere is a substantial new work for four marimbas by Kevin Volans and appearances in their debut season include the NCPA Beijing, Wigmore Hall and East Neuk Festival among others. Currie’s orchestral engagements include appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra and GAIDA Festival.
Currie’s dynamic ensemble the Colin Currie Group was formed in 2006 to celebrate the music of Steve Reich and made its five-star debut at the BBC Proms. Since then, with Reich’s personal endorsement Currie and his ensemble have taken on the role of ambassadors of Drumming, which they have performed at many venues and festivals internationally.
Currie is Artist in Association at London’s Southbank Centre, where he was the focus of a major percussion festival Metal Wood Skin in 2014 and continues to perform there every season.
Håkan Hardenberger
is one of the world’s leading soloists, consistently recognized for his phenomenal performances and tireless innovation. Alongside his performances of the classical repertory, he is also renowned as a pioneer of significant and virtuosic new trumpet works.
Håkan Hardenberger performs with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Wiener Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker and London Symphony Orchestra. Conductors he regularly collaborates with include Martyn Brabbins, Péter Eötvös, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Ingo Metzmacher, Andris Nelsons, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and John Storgårds.
The works written for and championed by Hardenberger stand as key highlights in the repertory and include those by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Brett Dean, Hans Werner Henze, Steven Mackey, Olga Neuwirth, Arvo Pärt, Toru Takemitsu, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Rolf Wallin and HK Gruber’s concerto Aerial, which has received its 70th performance with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2015.
In summer 2017, Hardenberger returns to the Tanglewood Music Festival, this time for an educational focus featuring collaborations with Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians and Tanglewood Music Centre Fellows. He is the celebrity Resident Artist of the new Klosters Summer Music Festival in Switzerland. In 2017/2018 he continues his residency with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, which showcases him as soloist and a conductor. In January 2018 he leads HK Gruber’s 75th birthday festivities at the Konzerthaus Vienna with a performance of his first trumpet concerto Aerial. He returns to Vienna for a performance at the Musikverein celebrating B.A.Zimmermann’s centenary. Other orchestras he works with include the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, BBC Symphony, Swedish Radio and Danish National Symphony as well as Helsinki and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras.
Conducting is an integral part of Hardenberger’s music making. He conducts orchestras such as BBC Philharmonic, Saint Paul and Swedish Chamber Orchestras, Dresden Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony Dublin, Euskadi Orchestra and Malmö Symphony. Duo partnerships include pianist Roland Pöntinen and percussionist Colin Currie, with whom he performs a new duo work by Brett Dean at the Malmö Chamber Music Festival this September, followed by Aldeburgh, Wimbledon and Bergen Festival. He is Artistic Director of the Malmo Chamber Music Festival.
His extensive discography on the Philips, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon and BIS labels includes his latest recording with Gothenburg Symphony/ John Storgårds of Brett Dean’s and Luca Francesconi’s trumpet concertos. His catalogue features the Academy of St Martin in the Fields with new arrangements of film and pop melodies, a Gruber and Schwertsik CD with Swedish Chamber Orchestra (BIS) and a Wallin recording with Bergen Philharmonic/ Storgårds (Ondine).
Hardenberger was born in Malmö, Sweden. He began studying the trumpet at the age of eight with Bo Nilsson in Malmö and continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, with Pierre Thibaud, and in Los Angeles with Thomas Stevens. He is a professor at the Malmö Conservatoire.
