London Band Comes to Town: NCPA wraps up Percussion Music Festival

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The National Center for the Performing Arts has just wrapped up its fifth Percussion Music Festival. The event hosted five concerts, bringing together some of the world's best percussionists. Collin Currie -- considered the finest and most daring artist-- delivered the closing concert, along with his quartet. Song Yaotian reviews the show.

It's not melodic, but they're the type of sounds you might expect from a Collin Currie concert.

The final show of the NCPA's Percussion Music Festival featured Currie -- who's an Artist in Association at London's Southbank Centre -- and his quartet. The other three members are also leading solo, symphonic and chamber percussionists, and each shone on stage in their own right.

This tune is called "Mallet Quartet". There's no catchy melody, but the sounds conjured up by the mallets may recall something of nature to you. The effect is like the sound of a brook or spring running through a valley or forest.

This solo performance by Currie is called "Rebounds B". The musician's virtuosic drumming imitates a basketball rebounding off the board. The audience was held spellbound by his resounding yet sensitive rendition.

Currie is the percussion soloist of choice for many of today's foremost composers. He performs regularly with the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

Dynamic and adventurous, his commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2015, with the Instrumentalist Award.

Currie has forged a pioneering path throughout his career in creating new music for his genre. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000, and received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005.

Currie's recording of Rautavaara's "Incantations" with the Helsinki Philharmonic was released to critical acclaim, earning him a 2012 Gramophone Award. And his earlier album of Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic won a Grammy in 2010.

He founded the Colin Currie Quartet in 2018 to present the diverse works written for percussion quartets. CGTN.