Colin Currie Quartet Comes to the Cumnock Tryst

Saturday 20 April this year marks an important and exciting day for The Cumnock Tryst. Based in East Ayrshire, The Cumnock Tryst welcomes the adventurous Colin Currie Quartet to Auchinleck in one of its year-round musical evenings. Following a night of spectacular percussion music at the Boswell Centre, one of the country’s favourite festivals for music lovers launches its programme to celebrate its 10th Birthday.

Founder and director of the Cumnock Tryst, Sir James MacMillan said: “Colin Currie is a great friend of the Tryst having performed for us and been involved in many of our most extraordinary education projects over the last 10 years. However, this is the very first time he has brought his quartet to the Tryst. As some of the world’s leading solo, symphonic and chamber percussionists, each player brings a different and insightful slant to the art of chamber percussion performance. Recent highlights include performances at the NCPA Beijing, BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, GAIDA Festival Vilnius, East Neuk Festival, Dublin Chamber Music Festival amongst others.”

“The evening will also include the launch of The Cumnock Tryst’s 10th Birthday Festival when we will reveal the programme for FIVE days of music-making in October 2024.”

The Colin Currie Quartet was formed in 2018 to present new and adventurous works written for percussion quartet. The Quartet performs works by Steve Reich and other younger composers who have been influenced by Reich’s minimalist aesthetic and style. In particular the American composers Julia Wolfe and her pupil Andy Akiho are featured in this programme. Their music is vibrant, exciting and viscerally affecting. 

Colin Currie has also been a great champion of the music of Dave Maric and this concert gives audience the opportunity to hear the influence of jazz, folk, rock and experimental music in his multi-stylistic Nascent Forms. 

Another composer attracting a lot of excited attention recently is the young Scot Aileen Sweeney. This concert includes one of the first opportunities to hear the new work that she has written for this brilliant ensemble, Starburst.

The Cumnock Tryst reveals its programme for the 10th Birthday Festival on 20th April. The Festival has added an extra day of music this year, in celebration of its Birthday, opening on Wednesday 2 October and running until Sunday 6 October 2024.

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