Evelyn Glennie (born July 19, 1965 in Aberdeenshire) is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist who studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music.
Glennie tours extensively in the northern hemisphere and performs with an extraordinarily wide variety of orchestras and contemporary musicians, giving over 100 concerts a year as well as master classes and ‘music in schools’ performances. She frequently commissions percussion works from composers and performs them in her concert repertoire. To date, these original works include 53 concertos, 56 recital pieces, 18 concert pieces and 2 works for percussion ensemble.
Glennie has been profoundly deaf – meaning that she has some very limited hearing – since age 12. This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She is the patron of many charities supporting the deaf, young musicians, and people with a variety of disabilities.
She is also featured on Icelandic singer Bjork’s album, Telegram, performing the duet “My Spine”.
Awards and recognitions:
Glennie has won many awards for her playing, including a Grammy for her recording of Béla Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion. She is the recipient of fifteen honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom and was awarded the OBE in 1993. She owns over 1800 percussion instruments.
Source: Wikipedia
3 comments
Lizzie
Pepole at my school said I couldn’t drum cause i’m a girl but i can and their surprised that i can I can do something.
gretchen
Linda – that’s fantastic! I’m glad you never listened. I am the same way…if you tell me not to do it…watch out!
Linda Waring
My band director advised my Mom not to buy me any drums because he said that drumming was just a phase that I was going through. That was in about 1964. I still play drums…longest phase ever, huh? He also wouldn’t let me be part of the stage band because I was female. But you know what…his actions allowed me to be even more determined than ever to be a drummer, and to play music in the 60’s-70’s-80’s- 90’s and into 2010’s you had to be better than the guys you are in competition with for gigs.So thank you for telling me I couldn’t …for it gave me more resolve than ever.