Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie,^[1] CH, DBE (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12 and claims to have taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears.

Glennie was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.

Early life

Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire. Her father was Herbert Arthur Glennie, an accordionist in a Scottish country dance band, and the strong, indigenous musical traditions of north-east Scotland were important in the development of the young musician, whose first instruments were the mouth organ and the clarinet. Other major influences were Glenn Gould, Jacqueline du Pré and Trilok Gurtu. She studied at Ellon Academy and the Royal Academy of Music, and was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. She was a member of the Cults Percussion Ensemble, formed in 1976 by local musical educator Ron Forbes. They toured and recorded one album, which was re-released on Trunk Records in 2012.^[2]

Career

Glennie tours extensively in the northern hemisphere, spending up to four months each year in the United States, and performs with a 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.

She also plays the Great Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie".^[3] Glennie is in the process of producing her own range of jewellery and works as a motivational speaker. Evelyn also performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London 2012, leading a thousand drummers in the opening piece of music, and then playing the Aluphone during the ceremony for lighting the Olympic cauldron.

Deafness

Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12, having started to lose her hearing from the age of 8.^[4] This does not inhibit her ability to perform at an international level. She regularly plays barefoot during both live performances and studio recordings to feel the music better.^[4]

Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She claims to have taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. In response to what she described as mostly inaccurate reporting by the media, Glennie published "Hearing Essay" in which she discusses her condition.^[5] Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her TED talk "How To Truly Listen", published in 2003.^[6]

Collaborations

Glennie was featured on Icelandic singer Björk's album Telegram, performing the duet "My Spine". She has collaborated with many other musicians including former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, Fred Frith, Mark Knopfler and The King's Singers.

On 21 November 2007, the UK government announced an infusion of £332 million for music education. This resulted from successful lobbying spearheaded by Glennie, Sir James Galway, Julian Lloyd Webber, and Michael Kamen, who also (in 2002–03) together formed the Music in Education Consortium.^[7]

In 2012, she collaborated with Underworld on the soundtrack to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and performed live in the stadium.

Personal life

In 1994, Glennie married composer, sound engineer and tuba player Greg Malcangi, with whom she collaborated on several musical projects. They divorced in 2003, following her widely publicised affair with orchestral conductor Leonard Slatkin.^[8]

Awards

Glennie has won many awards, including:

• Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Soloist of the Year 1991
• Best Chamber Music Performance in the Grammy Awards of 1989
• Scot of the Year 1982
• Queen's Commendation prize for all round excellence 1985
• Scotswoman of the Decade 1990
• Best Studio and Live Percussionist from Rhythm Magazine 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004
• Walpole Medal of Excellence 2002
• Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music 2002
• Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University 2002 ^[9]
• Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year 2003
• Sabian Lifetime Achievement Award 2006
• Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame – November 2008^[1][10]
• Polar Music Prize 2015

She has been awarded 15 honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993 and was promoted to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours.^[11] She was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours.^[12] She owns over 2000^[13] percussion instruments from all over the world and is continually adding to her collection. Glennie is an Ambassador of the Royal National Children's Foundation (formerly the Joint Educational Trust) which helps support vulnerable, disadvantaged young people at state and independent boarding schools throughout the UK. She has also been the Patron of the London School of Samba since 1993.^[14]

She achieved a new kind of recognition in June 2016 when her name was the solution to an anagram clue in the Everyman Crossword in the UK's Observer Sunday newspaper - "Percussionist playing line gently, even with time running out (6,7)".

Albums

• Rhythm Song (1990)
• Dancin'
• Light in Darkness (1991) (RCA Victor 60557-2-RC), with Philip Smith, Steve Henderson, Gregory Knowles, Gary Kettel
  • Ney Rosauro—Eldorado
  • Keiko Abe—Dream of the Cherry Blossoms
  • John McLeod—The Song of Dionysius
  • Ross Edwards—Marimba Dances (tracks 4–6)
  • Minoru Miki—Marimba Spiritual
  • Evelyn Glennie—Light in Darkness
  • Toshimitsu Tanaka—Two Movements for Marimba
• Veni, veni Emmanuel (1993) (Catalyst 09026-61916-2. All pieces composed by James MacMillan. Scottish Chamber Orchestra.)
  • Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
    • Introit – Advent
    • Heartbeats
    • Dance – Hocket
    • Transition: Sequence I
    • Gaude, Gaude
    • Transition: Sequence II
    • Coda – Easter
  • After the Tryst
  • "...as others see us..."
    • Henry VIII (1491–1547)
    • John Wilmot (1647–1680)
    • John Churchill (1650–1722)
    • George Gordon (1788–1824) and William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
    • Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)
    • Dorothy Mary Hodgkin (b. 1910)
  • Three Dawn Rituals
    • Larghetto
    • Allegro moderato
    • Andante
  • Untold
• Drumming ( 11–15 December 1994)
• Wind In The Bamboo Grove (1995)
• Shadow Behind the Iron Sun (1999)
• Touch the Sound (soundtrack of the film; 2004)
• The Sugar Factory (featuring Fred Frith; 2007)
• Music: The Sound Of Hope (2012): contributed to a DVD and CD project in aid of The Clarence Adoo Foundation
• Altamira (2016) with Mark Knopfler

Films

• Touch the Sound (2004). Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, featuring a collaboration with Fred Frith. The farm where she grew up burned down during the production of the film, but her brother, Roger (who is featured in the film), and the animals, were unhurt.^[15]

Autobiography

• Good Vibrations: My Autobiography^[16]

Television appearances

• ZingZillas (2010). Appeared in episode 19 ("Hide and Seek") playing tubular bells on the BBC channel CBeebies.^[17] and in episode 50 ("Where's the Bug?") playing the waterphone.^[18]
• Sesame Street (2001). Appeared playing percussion with Oscar The Grouch's Grouchkateer Trash Band.^[19]
• 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony (27 July 2012), leading a 1,000-drummer ensemble performing And I Will Kiss in the Pandemonium segment.

See also

• What Do Artists Do All Day?

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Evelyn Glennie.

• Official website
• Evelyn Glennie at TED
  
  • "How to truly listen" (TED2003)
• Evelyn Glennie interview by Bruce Duffie