The percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie has won music’s equivalent of a Nobel prize and announced: “I want to collaborate with Eminem.”
The Scottish virtuoso, 49, will be awarded the 2015 Polar Music Prize, given annually to an act that has broken down musical boundaries.
Dame Evelyn, who was raised in Aberdeenshire, is one of Scotland’s most famous musicians, playing concerts all over the world despite being profoundly deaf since the age of 12.
She will be presented with the award along with fellow Laureate, the singer songwriter Emmylou Harris, by King Carl Gustaf of Sweden in a ceremony in Stockholm on June 9.
Previous winners include Sir Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Ennio Morricone, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Burt Bacharach and Bruce Springsteen.
Advertisement
Dame Evelyn, who lip-reads and senses notes and instruments by feeling their vibrations, said her dream partnership would be with the rapper Eminem. “I’ve always fancied collaborating with Eminem. I’ve greatly admired him. It’s a kind of attitude thing I like about him, I just feel as though he’s really pushed the boundaries.”