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Artist website: http://www.neilcurrie.com
Neil Currie is a composer, pianist, conductor, and lecturer who obtained Bachelor's and Master's degrees in experimental and clinical psychology before turning to music. He studied with leading Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe and has completed two major composer residencies with symphony orchestras in Adelaide and Saskatoon. His commissions include those from the London–based guitarist John Williams and organist Simon Preston.
His music appears on nine commercial CDs, including Passionscape, which is devoted entirely to his orchestral music and Rollin' Down #1, which netted the Land's End Chamber Ensemble (Calgary) a Western Canada Music award for the best classical recording in 2006. He is also an active jazz pianist whose piano trio played two contracts for Holland America Lines in 2004.
Currie has been the recipient of numerous grants and has been juror for the Australia Council, Canada Council, and Saskatchewan Arts Board. Rhapsody (from Symphony) received a Western Canada Music Award nomination for outstanding classical composition in 2006; Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (Tumbling Strain); received a national JUNO nomination for outstanding classical composition in 2007. Urban Diversions, a CD of Currie's original jazz compositions, was released in June 2007.
Currie taught many subjects in the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan from 1999–2006. He was appointed Acting Head of Composition (sessional) at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton in 2007.
Biography provided by the composer — current to July 2008
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