Glennie drums up a sensory storm

Is there a classical music stereotype Evelyn Glennie hasn't broken? She's a woman playing an instrument whose ranks were traditionally filled with men. She brought the drums - usually relegated to the back of the orchestra - to the front of the stage, becoming what is generally recognised as classical music's first full-time professional solo percussionist. Beating the usual pianists, violinists and opera singers, the young Scot won a Grammy for her first CD at the age of 22.

That time, she recorded Bartok's Sonata For Two Pianos And Percussion. After that, when she couldn't find enough compositions to suit her needs, she commissioned them, and has had more than 100 pieces written exclusively for her.

Partly because of classical music's limited repertoire for solo percussionists, most of Glennie's performances feature modern compositions. In Hong Kong, Glennie and her piano accompanist will be playing a wide variety of music by contemporary composers from New Zealand, Serbia, the United States, Britain, Iceland, Puerto Rico and Japan.

To add to it all, she's done away with the image of the prissy classical musician; she uses a truck to carry her myriad instruments when she tours. In fact, she was even a little apologetic when asked about her upcoming concert in Hong Kong, where her truck obviously couldn't follow her.

'The instruments [here] will include marimba, vibraphone, cymbals galore, Latin percussion, drum set, children's toys,' she writes in an e-mail interview from the US, where she is currently touring. 'I would normally use more equipment ... but I'm borrowing a few bits from Hong Kong, so I don't have as much flexibility as if I'm performing within Europe. We would load the truck up with anything and everything.'

The final thing that sets Glennie apart is that she is profoundly deaf.

This means that, while she can hear some sounds and feel the vibrations coming from her percussive instruments, her ears do not work the way most people's do. But it's not a fact you will find on any of her posters, press releases or promotional material because she doesn't want to make a big deal about it.