Evelyn Glennie

Evelyn Glennie was born on the 19th July 1965 in Aberdeenshire She is the youngest of three children and grew up on a farm in northeast Scotland, where her mother was the organist in the village church. Evelyn played harmonica and clarinet as a child. When she was eight years old, she began to lose her hearing. By the time she was twelve, she was profoundly deaf. At about the same time, Evelyn discovered the snare drum and decided to become a professional percussionist. She attended the Royal College of Music in London, where she found out that there had never before been anyone who made a living as a solo percussionist. But it was too late for any discouragement—she was sure this was what she wanted to do with her life. Her first recording, made in 1989, won a Grammy award. Since then, Glennie has made twelve more recordings. She travels the world as the first person to be a full-time solo percussionist. Besides performing solo recitals, she often performs as a soloist with symphony orchestras. She designs and sells her own percussion instruments and accessories, including a new type of cymbals made from sheet metal called "Glennie's Garbage." She has called the sound "really trashy." Glennie has also used pieces of scaffolding to make instruments. She is always looking for interesting materials to play with. A composer named Django Bates wrote a piece for her entitled "My Dream Kitchen," in which all the instruments are kitchen utensils!

Evelyn Glennie wants audiences to focus on her music rather than on her deafness, and she wants them to be entertained. She explains that deafness is poorly understood by most people. Glennie can hear sounds and distinguish them, though she cannot hear them the way she did long ago. For example, she can hear someone speaking, but cannot distinguish words clearly, so she reads lips to get the meaning. She hears a phone ringing as a kind of crackling sound, but she knows that the crackling sound is a phone ringing. She can hear well enough to be able to play percussion instruments spectacularly well.