Scottish visions: Percussionist Evelyn Glennie performs in Grand Rapids

Evelyn Glennie, a hearing-impaired percussionist who “hears” the music by sensing vibrations through her bare feet, will bring her  talent to Grand Rapids.

She joins David Lockington and the Grand Rapids Symphony for a pair of performances entitled “Scottish Visions” at 8 p.m. Jan. 8 and 9 at DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave., downtown Grand Rapids.

The Grammy-winning virtuoso taps deeply into her ancestral roots for this performance that has a distinct taste of Scotland. Glennie, the first artist to create and sustain a career as a solo percussionist in the classical music world, will open with “Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise,” playing the highland bagpipes. The work, commissioned by The Boston Pops Orchestra in 1985, is a musical picture postcard of a wedding composer Peter Maxwell Davies attended on the isle of Hoy, one of several sparsely populated islands off the coast of northern Scotland. The music depicts the wedding ceremony as it unfurls from its solemn opening at dawn through its frenzied and chaotic celebration.

In the 20th century, the role of percussion in symphony orchestras increased in importance. Joseph Schwantner wrote his “Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra” in 1995, drawing on his fascination with the  array of diverse instruments and wide-ranging instrumental skills and techniques that form a percussionist’s arsenal. In the three-part work, Glennie’s talents will be showcased as she collaborates with percussion colleagues of the orchestra, performing on bongos, amplified marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, drums, Alpine herd bells, cymbals, triangles and more.

Continuing the evening’s Scottish theme, audiences will experience Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 “Scottish,” a work inspired by the country and its lore. At the end of his teenage years, Mendelssohn set off with a friend to take in the sights and sounds of Europe.  Beginning his travels in the British Isles, he was especially captivated by Scotland, where he found inspiration for the beginning of his “Scottish” symphony. As fate and life intervened, more than a decade passed before the piece was finished, and despite beginning it at such a young age, it was the last symphonic work Mendelssohn ever completed.

Tickets start at $18 and can be purchased by phone through Ticketmaster at (800) 982-2787, online at www.grsymphony.org, by visiting any Ticketmaster outlet or in person at the Symphony office, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.