Overview of Evelyn Glennie

Classical percussionist and composer. Born in Aberdeen, Glennie was educated at the Royal Academy of Music. Despite being profoundly deaf since childhood, Evelyn Glennie has become one of the world's most talented musicians, performing internationally with many of the greatest orchestras. She plays by detecting the resonance of her instruments through her body, a fact reflected in the title of her 1990 autobiography, Good Vibrations. Director Thomas Riedelsheimer produced her story as Touch the Sound, which premiered in Edinburgh and Locarno in 2004. In addition to a hectic recording schedule and more than 100 live performances each year, Glennie composes music for film and television, including original work for commercials.

Glennie was named Scot's Woman of the Decade in 1990, awarded an OBE in 1993 and created a dame in 2007. She holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Aberdeen (1991), Dundee (1996), Heriot-Watt (2002) and Edinburgh (2004), together with several other institutions in England and beyond.