EVELYN GLENNIE

Touch the Sound

 

Improvised and performed by Evelyn Glennie & Fred Frith Award-winning director and cinematographer, Thomas Riedelsheimer (director of the acclaimed Rivers and Tides), takes us on a journey through a universe of sound with percussionist Evelyn Glennie. While exploring the role of deafness in Glennie’s music-making, Touch the Sound challenges our understanding of the senses and celebrates Glennie’s uncanny gifts. Believed to be the first full-time solo percussionist in the West, Dame Evelyn Glennie has performed with nearly all of the world's major orchestras in front of several presidents and world leaders. In concert, she plays up to 60 instruments including the gamelan, xylophone, marimba and timpani. Outside percussion, she is also adept on the great highland bagpipes.

 

On stage, the percussionist performs barefoot in order to feel vibrations from her instruments, and often stands at 90 degrees to the audience so they can see the drum skins vibrating. Her personal collection includes 1,800 instruments, several of which Glennie designed herself, and she keeps percussion kits in six countries to facilitate her hectic touring schedule. Outside the world of classical music, Glennie has achieved fame for her collaborations with artists including Sting, Ray Davies, Fred Frith and Bjork. She is the vice-president of Hearing Concern and Deafness Research UK, and president of The Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children, which provides musical therapy units to schools for the deaf and partially-hearing across the UK. Evelyn's activities also include lobbying the Government on political issues; her consortium with Sir James Galway, Julian Lloyd Webber and the late Michael Kamen successfully led to the government providing £332 million towards music education.

 

DVD 9, Dolby 5.1

Screen Format: 16.9

Duration: 98 mins

 

Signum DVD SIGDVD006