Name: Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie
Originally From: North of Aberdeen, Scotland
Sign: Cancer
Favorite Colors: Red and purple
Favorite (tour) Food: Italian, although Evelyn has a soft spot for shortbread, Earl Grey tea and chocolate.
Current Bands/Ensembles/Projects: Full time Solo percussionist
Previous Bands/Ensembles/Projects: Full time Solo percussionist
Website: http://www.evelyn.co.uk
Discography: http://www.evelyn.co.uk/acatalog/EG_Merchandise_Recordings_20.html
(15 solo CDs, 3 videos, autobiography "Good Vibrations"), not to mention other records on other labels.
Favorite Beats/Licks/Works/Composers/Drums: Everything!!

Evelyn Glennie is the first and only full-time professional classical percussion soloist. To see Evelyn play is a wonder. This "thrilling, hyperkinetic, wild woman" bangs, caresses, shakes, strokes, strikes, scrapes, and generally beats the tar out of a huge array of all kinds of percussion instruments; congas, vibes, cowbells, cymbals, marimba, her own instrument creations, up to about 60 instruments in any given show (she travels with up to two TONS of gear). By playing barefoot, Evelyn is able to experience the music fully. Her attacks contain a controlled ferocity or an astounding delicacy; her ultra-speed and accuracy can barely be described.

Much media attention has been given to the fact that Evelyn is a deaf musician. Without dwelling on the subject, Drummergirl would like to sum up an essay from Evelyn's site: the general understanding of "deaf" is incorrect. Evelyn is profoundly deaf, and she doesn't feel the need to make a big deal about it. After she lost her hearing when she was young, Evelyn spent a lot of time with her percussion teacher Ron Forbes, refining her ability to detect vibration. She can distinguish the rough pitch of notes by associating where on her body she feels the sound. Truth be told, Evelyn's hearing is something that bothers other people far more than it bothers her. Since she is one of the world's top international musicians, it must not make much of a difference to the orchestras, conductors, or venues.

By the way, Evelyn also plays the bagpipes - the Great Highland pipes, to be exact, with orchestras and in recitals. She even has her own tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie". (http://www.tartans.scotland.net/tartan_info.cfm?tartan_id=2590)

She gave the first ever Percussion recital and Percussion concerto in the history of Britain's Royal Academy of Music (the conservatory was founded in 1822), where she studied both piano and percussion. For the first ten years of her career, nearly every performance she gave was in some way a first; the first time an orchestra had performed with a percussion soloist, the world premiere of a new percussion work (written especially for her), the first solo percussion performance at a venue. She gives around 110 concerts per year, and spends up to four months touring in the United States alone.

If that's not impressive enough, Evelyn has received a Grammy, and two further Grammy nominations, plus a Classic CD Award for her solo recordings, of which she has released 13 to date. She has also earned her country's highest honor, as a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, an award that commemorates non-combatant service. She is co-director (along with the National Symphony's Music Director Leonard Slatkin, no less) of a Percussion Festival in Washington DC, which will be expanding to New York City's Carnegie Hall.

She was also the first classical musician to have her own website. (In fact, the Evelyn Glennie company designs web pages for music publishers and technology companies.) It's fitting then, that despite her relentless touring schedule, Evelyn was somehow able to give Drummergirl a moment of her time.

Background

DG: What inspired you to play, and how old were you when you started?
GLENNIE: I started timpani & percussion from the age of 12. Simply curiosity and a very good teacher inspired me.

DG: What did you start out playing? Kit percussion? Marching band? Hand drums?
GLENNIE: I started on xylo, snare drum, 2 hand tuned timpani and a small group of auxiliary instruments.

DG: How did you learn to play?
GLENNIE: I was treated as a musician first and an instrumentalist second. I was always encouraged to use my imagination and constantly deal with music rather than exercises.

DG: What was your first kit/drum/percussive instrument?
GLENNIE: The first thing I was ever given was an extremely cheap snare drum which I still have.

Playing

DG: Do you/Did you ever play kit percussion? If yes, which way do you play -- left- or right-handed?
GLENNIE: Both

DG: Have you ever taken lessons? If so, where? Would you recommend lessons to others?
GLENNIE: I had one teacher from the age of 12 to 16 at school and then I spent 3 years with another teacher at the Royal Academy of Music in London. I would recommend lessons to others but also I would recommend having lessons with harpists, trumpeters, cellists, etc.

DG: What kind of instruments do you play on?
GLENNIE: All sorts. There are so many companies making good products.

DG: How long have you been playing the Great Highland Bagpipes?
GLENNIE: 5 years

DG: What is your favorite style of drums/percussion to play?
GLENNIE: Whatever the music requires, I shall deal with. Therefore all musical dialects are of interest to me.

Evelyn plays all the conventional percussion instruments (the xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, drum kit, snare drum, cymbals, timpani, wood blocks, temple blocks, chimes, cowbells ,tambourines, tam tams, gongs) and is also a virtuosic wizard on a wide variety of ethnic instruments (the congas, bongos, timbales, djembes, bodhrans, log drums, gamelan, wind gongs, rain trees, maracas, shakers, guiros, shekeres, pandeiros, claves, steel pan, cup bells, taiko drums). In any one performance, she can be playing up to sixty different instruments which may include flower pots, kitchen utensils and other ordinary objects. Evelyn's got nearly 1400 instruments in her percussion arsenal, including those of her own design: the cymbal tree, pieces of scaffolding, the simtak which is an exhaust pipe played with triangle beaters, "Glennie's Garbage"- her own line of "trashy sounding" cymbals welded from sheet metal are now being marketed by Sabian.

DG: What is your latest instrumental creation?
GLENNIE: An cylindrical organ pipe filled with water that makes an eerie whale like sound. Very interesting and hugely popular with the audience.

DG: To which of your instrument creations are you most attached?
GLENNIE: Probably the Batonka and the Simtak

DG: What kind of sounds do they make?
GLENNIE: The Batonka is 2 octaves of plastic tubes played with paddle type
mallets. It creates a "boink" type sound! The Simtak is a huge truck exhaust pipe with a very sharp, tingly resonant sound which I play with triangle sticks.

DG: What are your favorite sticks, mallets, beaters, cymbals, drums?
GLENNIE: All sorts!! All the companies make something special!

DG: Any endorsements? (Hmmm...perhaps your own line of Sabian cymbals?)
GLENNIE: Sabian Cymbals, Evans Drum Heads, Pro Mark Sticks and several recommendations such as Malletech Marimbas, Page Drums, Grover products, etc.

DG: How often do you get a chance to play with rock bands, folk groups, Gamelan Orchestras, jazz bands, Latin ensembles, taiko circles, Indian classical musicians?
GLENNIE: My speciality is solo percussion but I have collaborated with the likes of Bjork, Kodo Drummers, Nana Vasconcelos, Classical Ballet Dancers, Gamelan Groups, Steve Hackett, etc, etc.

Evelyn most recently received a Grammy Award for Perpetual Motion, a collaboration with banjo player Béla Fleck. She has performed with Gamelan orchestras in Indonesia and Samba bands in Brazil, including work with the Brazilian percussionist and vocalist, Nana Vasconcelos (http://www.ejn.it/mus/vasconce.htm) . Evelyn maintains an ongoing collaboration with Icelandic singer, Björk; together they have composed and recorded several pieces, and Evelyn has appeared in Björk's video on MTV Unplugged.

Works, Roles and Models

DG: Who are your current musical favorites?
GLENNIE: Maxim Vengerov the violinist, Terry Bozzio, the traditional Irish group The Chieftains, Bela Fleck the Banjo player and so many others, not to mention sports people, business people, etc.

DG: Major influences?

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GLENNIE: Jacqueline du Pré [cellist], Glenn Gould [pianist].

DG: Name your favorite percussionist and describe his/her best qualities.
GLENNIE: There are too many to just pick one! As long as an individual can express him or herself in an honest way then I am happy! There are so many wonderful players.

DG: What do you believe a percussionist's role is in an ensemble/orchestra? What do you believe the drummer's role is in a band?
GLENNIE: In both cases sensitivity, understanding of the whole picture, creativity, flexibility, reliability, and of course great musicianship.

DG: Are there many works written for percussion soloists, (aside from the hundred or so new works you've commissioned from contemporary composers)? Have you written anything for solo percussion?
GLENNIE: I have written small pieces for marimba and in my personal library I have nearly 3000 pieces listed for solo percussion.

Loading questions

DG: Do you ever go into drum stores? Were you ever intimidated in a drum store?
GLENNIE: I go to stores whenever I can. No, I have never been intimidated.

DG: Well, since you've obviously got a lot of equipment to transport (up to 2 tons for each performance), how do you get it around? How do you carry all your equipment?
GLENNIE: I have my own technician with back up techs when required. I transport everything in my truck in western Europe for which I have several duplicates of instruments within the UK. I fly the instruments when performing further afield. In the USA I have another set of instruments based there, for which I normally have them travel by road in a hired truck but sometimes they fly, depending on the concert schedule.

Note: It takes on average 4 hours to set up the instruments Evelyn plays in any one gig and an average of 2 hours to strip them all down after the performance.

Touring and Performance

DG: Do you have any touring stories you'd like to tell us?
GLENNIE: No! Touch wood, we have been hassle free which is amazing considering the amount of concerts given.

DG: How long were you playing before you knew this was the thing for you?
GLENNIE: I knew when I was 15 years old that I wanted to be a soloist. Therefore, I had been playing for about 2.5 years.

DG: How long were you playing before you played a recital/concert/gig?
GLENNIE: I played concerts at school during my first year of playing.

DG: What's it like playing with top orchestras?
GLENNIE: Great! I love concerto work as each orchestra has very much its own character and ways of delivery.

DG: What was it like working with Kodo? Bjork? Michael Daugherty? Leonard Slatkin? The Black Dyke Band?
GLENNIE: All great experiences - character building is what I would call it! One has to keep a completely open mind at all times. It's just wonderful having all these experiences and sharing them with truly great musicians.

Note: Evelyn loves to travel on motorbikes and passed her full motorcycle test in January of 2001. Also, the one thing Evelyn never leaves home without (no, not American Express), other than her instruments, is her Gameboy.

Practice

DG: How do you find time to practice when you're on tour?
GLENNIE: That's hard. I simply carry a little pad with me but most of the time the practice happens in my head. Visualization plays a huge part in my development as I do not get to my instruments very often.

DG: Do you have any tuning tips?
GLENNIE: No, other than keep experimenting. Try every combination possible and truly EXPERIENCE the sound. Pick what is right for the piece of music or situation you are dealing with. My tuning varies quite considerably.

DG: How did you improve your speed and accuracy?
GLENNIE: Play freely and without strain. Nothing should feel unnatural and do not push things unnecessarily. Go with the flow of your body and constantly think of quality of sound. The speed will come in its own natural way.

More about EVELYN

DG: You are the first ever, and still the only full-time solo percussionist in the field of classical music. Did you ever have a day job?
GLENNIE: No!

DG: What resources (stores, books, teachers, magazines, etc.) do you recommend?
GLENNIE: Any type of book and magazine you can lay your hands on. I get most of my ideas from the most unlikely sources, hence why I read non-musical books.

DG: What have you been reading lately?
GLENNIE: Conversations with God by Neale Walsch. He has written 3 books under this title. Very interesting read.

DG: What was the greatest compliment you've been given about your playing?
GLENNIE: It's encouraging when a very seasoned orchestral player comments on my musicianship. He/she has seen a lot of musicians come and go as soloists and so it is special to be commented on purely on musicianship.

DG: What are your goals as a percussionist?
GLENNIE: To always find something interesting around the corner and to be sure that as many people (young and old) get to experience the power of sound through percussion.

DG: So, when you were a teenager, you wanted to be a hairdresser. What would you be doing if you weren't a percussionist?
GLENNIE: I would be a visual artist and no doubt a jewelry designer too, using I think all sorts of materials including scrap material. I would be totally open in the same way I make instruments from all sorts of materials.

Much much more about Evelyn Glennie at http://www.evelyn.co.uk
See Evelyn perform! Check out her schedule for between now and Christmas: http://www.evelyn.co.uk/sched.htm

© October, 2002 Happy Mazza Media, LLC.
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