Alasdair Malloy – versatile and virtuosic percussionist performing and recording a variety of musical styles.
Alasdair is an experienced member of London’s busy and dynamic music scene working as a percussionist in many musical genres in performances and recordings. He appears as soloist with orchestras and collaborates with numerous musicians in the rock, pop and film world.
Classically trained and widely experienced in several musical genres, Alasdair joined the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20 while continuing to work in different musical settings. Now Principal Percussionist with the BBC Concert Orchestra and a busy freelance player in London’s recording scene Alasdair revels in a broad range of musical experiences with many of the world’s greatest performers.
With the BBC Concert Orchestra Alasdair can be heard regularly on all the main BBC Radio and Television networks as well as on soundtracks for many of the BBC’s landmark television series including Walking With Dinosaurs, The Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, Planet Earth and Nature’s Great Events. The BBC Concert Orchestra appears annually at the BBC Proms including the Last Night where they play in Hyde Park.
Alasdair played with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert from Buckingham Palace in June this year, performing with artists including Robbie Williams, Cliff Richard, Kylie Minogue, Stevie Wonder, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, Elton John, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Jessie J, Renee Fleming and Alfie Boe.
Alasdair has performed as soloist with many orchestras and at many festivals worldwide and made his solo BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan-Pascal Tortelier in 1998. He often incorporates his percussion playing into his Family and Schools concerts and has had many pieces written and arranged to highlight his diverse skills.
Outside the orchestral world, Alasdair enjoys working with many musicians in many different musical styles. Particular highlights have been playing with Mike Oldfield at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics – Alasdair previously played in the premieres of both Tubular Bells 2 and Tubular Bells 3 and on the subsequent World Tours – recording with Bjork in a Spanish castle, performing with Sting and Bob Geldof in Pavarotti’s garden at his Modena Festival and taking part in the Spice Girls’ first ever live performance.
He is a long-term collaborator with Scott Walker and features in the film Scott Walker – 30th Century Man and regularly works with Jarvis Cocker, having played on the final Pulp album and played and arranged tracks on Jarvis’s first solo album Jarvis. Alasdair featured in the 2000 Meltdown Festival at the Royal Festival Hall curated by Scott Walker and when Jarvis curated the same Festival in 2007, Alasdair was involved in many performances including the premiere of Beyond the Badlands, a work he composed for children’s voices and percussion inspired by Carl Orff’s Schulwerk.
As a percussionist in the studio Alasdair has enjoyed an active role in London’s busy music scene for over 25 years and has worked on numerous soundtracks with many of the greatest film composers including Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Alan Silvestri, Basil Poledouris, Vangelis, George Fenton, James Horner, and Howard Shore.