Evelyn Glennie (born July 19 1965 in Aberdeenshire) is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist.

Glennie tours extensively in the northern hemisphere and performs with an extraordinarily 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. To date, these original works include 53 concertos, 56 recital pieces, 18 concert pieces and 2 works for percussion ensemble.

Glennie has won many awards for her playing, including a Grammy for her recording of Béla Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion. She is the recipient of fifteen honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom and was awarded the OBE in 1993. She owns over 1800 percussion instruments.

Glennie has been profoundly deaf – meaning that she has some very limited hearing – since age 12. This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She is the patron of many charities supporting the deaf, young musicians, and people with a variety of disabilities.

In 1994, Glennie married composer, sound engineer and tuba player Greg Malcangi. In August 2004, the Scotsman newspaper reported that they had divorced during 2003, following publication of salacious e-mails between her and conductor Leonard Slatkin, which Slatkin's wife dismissed as 'flirting'.

External links

• Evelyn Glennie's website