The Evelyn Glennie Collection




The Evelyn Glennie Collection is a primary source, evidence-based repository and as such the facts contained in it have been drawn from documents, correspondence, photographs, audio & visual recordings, musical instruments, scores, and other artefacts. It covers all of Dame Evelyn’s career demonstrating her longevity as the world’s first full-time solo percussionist. The diversity of The Collection reaches far beyond the music industry.


We wish to thank all those who have donated and contributed to The Evelyn Glennie Collection. We are indebted to your generosity. Every contribution adds to the legacy of The Collection: as it grows, so does its capacity to inspire, engage and educate future generations.


Naturally, The Collection continues to grow and evolve not least because the professional career of Dame Evelyn continues to flourish but because there are still aspects of The Collection that we are identifying and cataloguing. However, after 7 years of dedicated work we are at a stage whereby we can make the following claims based on the evidence we have so far processed.

The Collection holds, amongst other things:

  • Over 100 concert outfits dating back to the 1970s
  • Over 4,000 administration papers such as contracts, booking forms and the schedules Dame Evelyn uses to manage her professional appearances
  • Over 2,000 sets of correspondence relating to concerts and other events
  • Over 1,500 programmes from concerts, masterclasses and lectures that Dame Evelyn has participated in, including some from her schooldays
  • Over 1,500 newspaper previews and reviews referring to her performances in concerts, videos and albums, plus another 1000 that reflect other aspects of her career such as appearances on television and radio and her work as a composer
  • Over 120 national and international awards and qualifications
  • In excess of 3,800 instruments and over 20 filing cabinets of percussion music
  • Numerous printed publications which Dame Evelyn has been the author of or in which she has written a Foreword, Preface or other
  • A multitude of solo CD and DVD recordings as well as those she has collaborated with other artists

We have been able to construct a timeline of over 4,000 entries that describes Dame Evelyn’s career day by day in a chronological order detailing exactly what she was doing where, with what and with whom. It is our aim that this collection will be made accessible but at present we may be able to provide information for research if you contact us.
The Collection is undoubtedly the primary in-depth resource detailing the unique journey of Dame Evelyn Glennie.

We have provided some information here, divided into categories, which you can scroll through below. Find out about the music Evelyn has commissioned and the concertos she has played in the performing career section. In the recording career section we’ve provided lists of Evelyn’s audio and video recordings that have been commercially released. The writing and print publication section details everything from Evelyn’s blog posts to her book contributions. If you would like to know more about the people Evelyn has worked with you should head to the collaborators section. We list all of Evelyn’s awards and qualifications here.

The above is only a small part of The Collection available through this website. Our aim is to transfer all of The Collection details from spreadsheets to a bespoke database. Many parts of The Collection will then be accessible to the general public. We are already in a good position to exhibit ‘themed’ parts of The Collection on location both internally and externally. Rather than solely listing facts and items, we are building on the ‘story’ of each part of The Collection. Our aim is for The Collection to be accessible for all people of all ages from all over the world.

If you feel there is anything you can contribute towards The Collection whether it be a photograph, past programme, music score, instrument or any information at all, no matter how small or if there is any information you cannot currently find please do feel free to contact us on admin@evelyn.co.uk.

If you are local to our office, and have some regular time available, we are also interested in hearing from people who would potentially like to become a volunteer.

Header image: Dijutal Tim (licence: CC BY 2.0)

Text last reviewed: 14th August 2023




Performing Career





Recording Career





Writing & Print Publication





Colleagues & Collaborators





Awards







The Evelyn Glennie Collection News





Blog Image: Jeremy Brooks (licence: CC BY-NC 2.0)
Reviews & News Archive Image: guasteví (licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)