Evelyn Glennie Biography
Below you can find Evelyn’s official biography and composer biography, tailored in varying lengths. Feel free to use any of these for publication in print or online. Please remember to cite www.evelyn.co.uk and to use our company logo. If you would like to find out more about Evelyn’s past, please explore our online archive. More personal information about Evelyn’s journey can be found on this timeline. Free-to-use images of Evelyn are available on our gallery page. If you’re a student, take a look at our Student Section page.
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Biography last updated: 19th May 2025
Image: © Philipp Rathmer/Brigitte
Solo percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie is a double GRAMMY winner, BAFTA nominee, recipient of the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour.
Last updated 21/06/2023
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the world’s premier solo percussionist. Her solo recordings exceed 40 CDs. A double GRAMMY award winner and BAFTA nominee, Evelyn composes for film, theatre and television. The Evelyn Glennie Podcast was launched in 2020. Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. Evelyn is Curator for The Evelyn Glennie Collection. Her iconic film Touch the Sound, TED Talk and charity The Evelyn Glennie Foundation embody her life-long mission to Teach the World to Listen.
Last updated 22/08/2023
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and artists. Evelyn has commissioned over 200 new works for solo percussion and has recorded over 40 CDs. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Leading 1000 drummers, Evelyn had a prominent role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games which featured a new instrument, the Glennie Concert Aluphone.
Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including 2 GRAMMY’s, the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She was appointed as the first female President of Help Musicians. Since 2021 she has been Chancellor of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Evelyn curates for The Evelyn Glennie Collection which includes in excess of 3,800 percussion instruments. The film Touch the Sound and TED Talk are key testimonies to her unique and innovative approach to sound-creation. She continues her life-long mission to Teach the World to Listen through her charity The Evelyn Glennie Foundation, which aims to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening in order to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower.
Last updated 22/08/2023
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and artists. Evelyn paved the way for orchestras globally to feature percussion concerti when she played the first percussion concerto in the history of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992.
A leading commissioner of new works, Evelyn has commissioned over 200 works from many of the world’s most eminent composers. “It’s important that I continue to commission and collaborate with a diverse range of composers whilst recognising the young talent coming through”. Evelyn composes music for film, television, theatre and music library companies. She is a double GRAMMY award winner and BAFTA nominee. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Leading 1000 drummers, Evelyn had a prominent role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games which featured a new instrument, the Glennie Concert Aluphone. “Playing at an event like that was proof that music really affects all of us, connecting us in ways that the spoken word cannot”.
Evelyn’s solo recordings currently exceed 40 CDs. These range from original improvisations, collaborations, percussion concerti and ground-breaking modern solo percussion projects.
Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She was appointed as the first female President of Help Musicians, only the third person to hold the title since Sir Edward Elgar and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Since 2021 she has been Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.
The Evelyn Glennie Podcast was launched in 2020 featuring popular personalities from the world of music, sport, television and academia. Evelyn curates The Evelyn Glennie Collection which includes in excess of 3,800 percussion instruments. The film Touch the Sound and TED Talk are key testimonies to her unique and innovative approach to sound-creation. Continuing her mission to Teach the World to Listen she founded The Evelyn Glennie Foundation in 2023, which aims to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening in order to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower.
Last updated 22/08/2023
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and artists. She grew up on a farm in the north-east of Scotland and was influenced by Scottish traditional music. Evelyn’s hearing declined from the age of 8 but she became a proficient pianist and later was introduced to percussion at the age of 12. She gained a place at The Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of 16 where she studied percussion and piano. She quickly realised there was a life for percussion outside the orchestra and became determined to define a new genre of solo percussion. Evelyn paved the way for orchestras globally to feature percussion concerti when she played the first percussion concerto in the history of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992.
Evelyn has commissioned over 200 pieces from many of the world’s most eminent composers. “It’s important that I continue to commission and collaborate with a diverse range of composers whilst recognising the young talent coming through”. Evelyn composes music for film (including co-composing the score for Altamira with Mark Knopfler), television (co-composing the music for Code of Silence with Dan Jones), theatre (co-composing the RSC production of Troilus and Cressida) and music library companies and is a double GRAMMY winner and BAFTA nominee. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians. “
Throughout her career, Evelyn has worked with diverse artists from the worlds of pop, jazz, folk, classical and contemporary music. Evelyn’s solo recordings currently exceed 40 CDs, are as diverse as her career on-stage. These range from original improvisations, collaborations, percussion concerti and ground-breaking modern solo percussion projects.
Leading 1000 drummers, Evelyn collaborated with director, Danny Boyle, in her prominent role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games which featured a new instrument, the Glennie Concert Aluphone.
“Playing at an event like that was proof that music really affects all of us, connecting us in ways that the spoken word cannot”. In 2018, Evelyn built upon this inter-disciplinary experience by composing the score for Gregory Doran of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s visionary new production of Troilus and Cressida. The Evelyn Glennie Podcast was launched in 2020 featuring popular personalities from the worlds of music, television, sport and academia.
Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She is President of Help Musicians, only the third person to hold the title since Sir Edward Elgar and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Since 2021 she has been Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. Evelyn is the patron of several charities and regularly participates in events to raise money and awareness for diverse causes.
Evelyn curates The Evelyn Glennie Collection which includes in excess of 3,800 percussion instruments. “I realized as soon as my parents bought me my second pair of sticks that I was going to be a collector of something!” The collection also encompasses concert programmes, awards, photos, paintings, letters and scores spanning her remarkable career.
Continuing her life-long mission to Teach the World to Listen she founded The Evelyn Glennie Foundation in 2023, which aims to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening in order to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower. “Listening is the backbone to every aspect of our lives. The challenges we face in business and at home can usually be overcome with better listening skills.” The film ‘Touch the Sound’ and her enlightening TED Talk remain key testimonies to her unique and innovative approach to sound-creation.
“My career and my life have been about listening in the deepest possible sense. Losing my hearing meant learning how to listen differently, to discover features of sound I hadn’t realized existed. Losing my hearing made me a better listener.”
Evelyn lives in the beautiful countryside of Cambridgeshire in the East of England.
Last updated 19/05/2025
Dame Evelyn Glennie has a huge international reputation and following as a solo artist. She is also a BAFTA nominated and double Grammy winning composer. With an unparalleled collection of instruments and a unique playing style, Dame Evelyn Glennie always creates a sound world that is unmistakably her own.
Her percussion-based scores for film and television show an extraordinary flair for underscoring mood and drama. Evelyn’s work on the groundbreaking crime drama Trial and Retribution, created by Lynda La Plante, spanned seven series, earning her a BAFTA nomination for her score for the first series. Her highly distinctive score for William Boyd’s The Trench vividly captured the volatile emotions and physical turmoil of the characters. Further collaborations include a partnership with Mark Knopfler on the score for the Spanish feature Altamira (directed by Hugh Hudson, starring Rupert Everett and Antonio Banderas) and a series of Mazda car commercials in the mid-’90s which inspired a host of imitations. More recently, Evelyn contributed original music to the 2024 film Preemptive Listening by Aura Satz and scored the feature documentary Elephant Mother.
Beyond film and television, Evelyn composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2018 production of Troilus & Cressida, has written numerous works for solo percussion and has created a collection of piano pieces designed for younger players.
Dame Evelyn Glennie is one of the most recognisable figures in contemporary British music, an extraordinary virtuoso percussionist and a captivating personality. Touring internationally as the world’s first full-time percussion soloist, she has performed with all the world’s major orchestras, earning widespread critical acclaim. Her twenty-five solo albums (including twelve on the RCA/BMG label) have reached a remarkably diverse public, as have her numerous collaborations with musicians from the non-classical world. In the mid-90s, she co-wrote and recorded songs with the Icelandic singer Björk, including the hit single My Spine. Her 2000 solo album Shadow Behind the Iron Sun, produced by legendary rock producer Michael Brauer, consists entirely of studio improvisations.
As a percussionist she has also featured in recent blockbuster films, including the soundtrack of The Marvels, starring Brie Larson.
Last updated 19/05/2025