Dame Evelyn Glennie, who was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 New Year Honours List, is one of the best-known figures in contemporary British music. An extraordinarily virtuosic percussionist as well as an engaging personality, she has long been subject to considerable media interest. Touring internationally with her huge array of instruments (the world's first full-time classical percussion soloist), she has played with all the world's major orchestras, consistently winning massive critical acclaim. Her sixteen solo albums (including twelve on the RCA/BMG label) have reached a remarkably diverse public, as have her numerous collaborations with musicians from the non-classical world. She has performed with Indian, Indonesian and South American traditional musicians, and in the mid-'90s co-wrote and recorded several songs with the Icelandic singer Björk, including the hit single My Spine. Her 2000 solo album Shadow Behind the Iron Sun, produced by acclaimed rock music producer Michael Brauer, entirely comprises studio improvisations by Evelyn. In addition to her life as a performer and recording artist, Evelyn has established for herself a considerable reputation as a composer for film and television. One of her earliest credits was her music for a series of Tony Kaye-directed TV commercials for Mazda Cars in the mid-'90s - which was so original that it spawned a host of imitations. She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her music for the first series of Lynda La Plante's ground-breaking crime drama Trial & Retribution (La Plante Productions for ITV), and has gone on to record many subsequent series of the show. Other drama credits include two four-hour versions of Bramwell (Whitby Davison Productions for ITV); and Blind Ambition (Coastal Productions/Yorkshire Television). Documentary credits include 3BM TV's 4-part study of the history of terrorism, The Age of Terror, produced by Oscar-winning producer Jon Blair and transmitted on the Discovery Channel to coincide with the first anniversary of the September 11th outrage. She also composed the title music for two series of the BBC's Soundbites, which she herself presented. In 1999 Evelyn scored her first feature film, The Trench, a First World War drama written and directed by the novelist William Boyd. In 2004 Evelyn collaborated with the film-maker Thomas Riedelsheimer on his film Touch the Sound. Described as "A Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie", the film explores the phenomenon of sound as Evelyn experiences it, in her life and work, and contains much original music by Evelyn, some co-written with the renowned guitarist Fred Frith. The soundtrack has been released by Normal Records. Evelyn has created a number of tracks for the library music company Audio Network PLC
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Biography from IMDb.
- July 19, 1965 (61)
- Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK
- Composer and actor
- 5 on MovieCove · 13 credits in all
What are Evelyn Glennie's films like?
Across their 6 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 5
Light 1 · Serious 2 · Dark 2
Grounded 2 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 1
A split, not a type: Gentle 3 · Charged 1 · Intense 1
Steady 3 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 2 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 1
A split, not a type: Easy watch 2 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 2 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 1
Roles they play
- Allyas Evelyn Glennie in Oh, It Hertz! (2021)
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet2
- Tragic2
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Evelyn Glennie's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 5 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
- BritBox
Subscription and free streaming for Evelyn Glennie's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
13 credits, 5 with a MovieCove page; 8 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Code of Silence(2025)
Midcredits score: 57th percentile of all shows
Elephant Mother (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
Watermelons: Vampires Of The Drâa (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2021)
Midcredits score: 78th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Finding Altamira(2016)
Midcredits score: 44th percentile of all films
Golf in the Kingdom(2010)
Midcredits score: 10th percentile of all films
Touch the Sound (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
People Say I'm Crazy (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
The Trench(1999)
Midcredits score: 32nd percentile of all films
Björk: MTV Unplugged 1994 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1994)
The Children (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1990)
Under the Sun (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1989)
First Tuesday (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1983)
Career shape
A full career of 12 titles from 1983 to 2024.
Awards
3 major awards from 7 major nominations, 1989–2014.
- Grammy Award, won · Best Classical Instrumental Solo
- Grammy Award, nominated · Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
- Grammy Award, won · Best Classical Crossover Album
- Grammy Award, nominated · Best Classical Crossover Album
- BAFTA Award, nominated · Best Original Television Music
+1 other major body · 1 nomination
- Grammy Award, nominated · Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
- Grammy Award, won · Best Chamber Music Performance
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Evelyn Glennie's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 38th percentile, the median of all 4; across their 5 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 34th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- 50th to 74th1
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
2 of their 5 titles are Mixed.
- Cult Classic1
- Crowd Pleaser1
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed2
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.