Evelyn Glennie

Career

Glennie tours all over the world performing as a soloist with a wide variety of orchestras and electric musicians. She conducts master classes, consultations and engages in motivational speaking. She is a leading commissioner of new works for solo percussion.

Glennie also plays the Great Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie".

Glennie performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London 2012, leading a thousand drummers in the opening piece of music And I Will Kiss, and also playing the Glennie Concert Aluphone in Caliban's Dream during the ceremony for lighting the Olympic cauldron.

Glennie is a patron of the music charity Sound World.

On 7 April 2021, Glennie was named as Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, succeeding Sir Ian Wood in July 2021.

Deafness

Glennie has been profoundly deaf since childhood, having started to lose her hearing at the age of 8. This does not inhibit her ability to perform. She regularly plays barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music.

Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She explains that her teacher Ron Forbes taught her to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. She felt the upper drum from the waist up and the lower drum from waist down. On her website Glennie published "Hearing Essay" in which she discusses her condition. Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her TED talk "How To Truly Listen", published in 2003, and a collection of her speeches and writings are published in her book Listen World!.

Evelyn launched the Evelyn Glennie Podcast in 2022, in which she invites popular personalities from the world of music, sport, television and academia to discuss their idea of listening and interpretation of sound.

Collaborations

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

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

In 2018, Glennie worked with Gregory Doran and the Royal Shakespeare Company composing the music for a production of Troilus and Cressida. In the same year she began a collaboration with experimental jazz musicians Trio HLK, touring with them and appearing on their debut album Standard Time.

In 2020, Glennie collaborated with the music charity Sound World, composing a new piece "The Grace of Silence" for their Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians. It was recorded by members of the Bristol Ensemble and released by Sound World in January 2021. It is the opening track on the album Reflections. Glennie also composed some of the music for the film Sound of Metal directed by Darius Marder. She is a prolific composer for the library music company Audio Network. Her works are published by Faber Music.

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 the late Michael Kamen who (in 2002–03) together formed the Music in Education Consortium.

Awards

Glennie's awards include:

• 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
• Leonardo da Vinci International Art Award, 1987
• 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
• Honorary Fellowship from Homerton College, Cambridge, 2016
• Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year, 2003
• Sabian Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006
• Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame – November 2008
• Polar Music Prize, 2015
• Best Classical Instrumental Solo in the Grammy Awards of 2014
• Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2023

She has been awarded 29 honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, most recently in 2023, Doctor of Music (DMus) from the University of St Andrews, 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. She was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours.

She owns in excess of 3,500 percussion instruments from all over the world and is continually adding to her collection. Glennie is an Ambassador of Sistema Scotland and is President of Help Musicians. She was appointed Music Rights Champion by the International Music Council in October 2016.

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 and the animals were unhurt.

Autobiography

• Good Vibrations: My Autobiography
• Listen World!

Children's book

• Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion

Television appearances

• ZingZillas (2010). Appeared in episode 19 ("Hide and Seek") playing tubular bells on the BBC channel CBeebies. and in episode 50 ("Where's the Bug?") playing the waterphone.
• Sesame Street (2001). Appeared playing percussion with Oscar the Grouch's Grouchketeer Trash Band.

Performed a scene with Sesame Street regular Linda Bove.

• 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony (27 July 2012), leading a 1,000-drummer ensemble performing And I Will Kiss.