Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie to Offer Free Lecture and Concer

Lecture to be held Feb. 6, Performance to be held Feb. 7

January 21, 2009 -Dame Evelyn Glennie, the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, will offer both a lecture and concert on separate nights in February. Both events will be hosted on the Phillips Academy campus and are free and open to the public.

The lecture will be held on Friday, February 6, at 8:00 p.m. in the Timken Room of Graves Hall, located at the corner of Main Street and School Street in Andover, Mass. The concert will be held on Saturday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Cochran Chapel, located on Chapel Avenue.

Glennie, who is coming to Phillips Academy as a Kayden Guest Artist, is one of the most eclectic and innovative musicians on the scene today as she constantly redefines the goals and expectations of percussion. By combining superb technique, a profound appreciation of the visual, and her astonishing musicality, Glennie creates performances of such vitality that they almost constitute a new type of performance. What makes her achievement even more remarkable is that Glennie has been deaf since the age of 12. (To learn more, click here to view a documentary about Glennie that is posted on YouTube.)

Glennie gives more than 100 performances a year worldwide, performing with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. For the first ten years of her career virtually every performance she gave was in some way a first - the first time an orchestra had performed with a percussion soloist, the first solo percussion performance at a venue or festival or the world premiere of a new piece. Her diversity of collaborations have included performances with artists such as Nana Vasconcelos, Kodo, Bela Fleck, Bjork, Bobby McFerrin, Emmanuel Ax, Sting, Kings Singers, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Fred Frith.

Glennie has commissioned one hundred and fifty new works for solo percussion from many of the world's most eminent composers and also composes and records music for film and television. Her first high quality drama produced a score so original she was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards (BAFTA's); the UK equivalent of the Oscars.

Glennie 's recording career has been as illustrious as her performing and composing career. Her first CD, a recording of Bartok's Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion, won her a Grammy in 1988. A further two Grammy nominations followed, one of which she won in 2002 for a collaboration with Bela Fleck for Sony Classical. Glennie 's twelfth solo CD, Shadow Behind the Iron Sun (BMG Records), was based on a radical concept and has once again questioned people's expectations. Despite working a relentless schedule, Glennie is in constant demand to release new recordings. She has released 25 so far.

Outside of actual performance, the Evelyn Glennie brand is constantly exploring other areas of creativity. From writing a best selling autobiography, Good Vibrations, to collaborating with the renowned film director Thomas Riedelsheimer on a film called Touch the Sound, to presenting two series of her own television programmes (Soundbites) for the BBC, to regularly appearing on television across the world, which include The David Letterman Show (USA), Sesame Street (USA), The South Bank Show (UK), presenting and performing on Songs of Praise (UK), Commonwealth Games Festival Concert, This is Your Life (UK), 60 minutes (USA), PBS Profile (USA) and many more.

Glennie 's activities also include lobbying the Government on political issues, her consortium with Sir James Gallway, Julian Lloyd Webber and the late Michael Kamen successfully led to the government providing £332. million towards music eduction. Other aspects include Evelyn Glennie Images which supplies photographs from a vast image library of Glennie, Evelyn Glennie Jewellery, which is a range of Jewellery designed in conjunction with Ortak and based on her influences as a solo percussionist, and Evelyn Glennie Merchandise. Glennie is also an international motivational speaker to many diverse corporate companies and events. She also performs with Orchestras on the Great Highland Bagpipes.

After 20 years in the music business, Glennie has begun teaching privately, which allows her to explore the art of teaching and to explore the world of sound therapy as a means of communication.

In 1993, Glennie was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire). This was extended in 2007 to “Dame Commander” for her services to music, and to date she has received over 80 international awards. She is brimming with ideas to improve the experience for the audience and continues to redefine the very format of live performance itself.

The lecture and concert at Phillips Academy are made possible by the generosity of the Bernard & Mildred Kayden Fund, established by the Kayden Family to bring distinguished artists to the school. Former Kayden Guest Artists have included Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis and Denyse Graves.

For more information call the Academy at (978) 749-4263 or e-mail to music@andover.edu