Hailed as an “Astounding Virtuoso” and “Exhilarating” performer, percussionist BRITTON-RENÉ COLLINS is a winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, receiving the Ambassador Prize for exceptional musicianship and demonstrating an active passion for creating social change through her music.
A Grand Prize winner of the 2022 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and the 2021 Chicago International Music Competition, Britton-René has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has performed with several orchestras including the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, and the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. Her 2023-24 season includes performances alongside the Western Piedmont Symphony, the Albany Symphony Orchestra (GA), the Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Battle Creek Symphony, and the Saint Paul Civic Symphony. In addition to her active solo career, Britton-René enjoys life as a chamber musician with New York City-based Excelsis Percussion Quartet. She is also the co-founder of Vision Duo alongside violinist Ariel Horowitz. As an advocate for new music, Britton-René's current projects involve generating new solo and chamber works for multi-percussion and marimba.
Britton-René’s recent highlights include attending the soundSCAPE new music composition and performance exchange in Italy, premiering a new work at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention for the second year since making her PASIC Artist debut in 2021, and participating in the Banff Centre's Evolution: Classical program. As an Artist/Endorser, Britton-René proudly performs using Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Zildjian cymbals, Marimba One instruments, and Remo drumheads.
Born in the United States, Britton-René began playing the piano at age five. She discovered percussion at eight years old when she became intrigued by the drum set. She quickly fell in love with playing rock, jazz, and pop music on the drum set, which ignited her enthusiasm to explore various percussion instruments and styles of music. She received her B.M. at the University of Toronto with Aiyun Huang, Beverley Johnston, and John Rudolph, where she won the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and performed the Canadian premiere of Sergei Golovko’s first marimba concerto alongside Maestro Uri Mayer and the UTSO. She is currently pursuing her M.M. at the University of Michigan. Her primary instructors include Doug Perkins and Ian Antonio.