About Red Priest
Red Priest is the only early music group in the world to have been compared in the press to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and the Cirque du Soleil. This extraordinary acoustic foursome has been described by music critics as
‘visionary and heretical’,
‘outrageous yet compulsive’,
‘wholly irreverent and highly enlightened’,
‘completely wild and deeply imaginative’,
with a ‘red-hot wicked sense of humour’
and a ‘ break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music.’
Founded in 1997, and named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, Red Priest has given several hundred sell-out concerts in many of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Moscow December Nights Festival, Schwetzingen Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Ravinia Festival, Bermuda Festival, and in most European countries, Japan, Australia, and throughout North and Central America. The group has been the subject of hour-long TV profiles for NHK (Japan) and ITV (UK) - the latter for the prestigious South Bank Show in 2005, which documented the launch of the Red Hot Baroque Show, an electrifying marriage of old music with the latest light and video technology.
In its regular line-up Red Priest comprises recorder player Piers Adams ("the reigning recorder virtuoso in the world today" - Washington Post), violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and harpsichordist Howard Beach; for most North American tours since 2006 the group has collaborated with the Canadian baroque/Cape-Breton violinist David Greenberg in place of Julia Bishop. These musicians have redefined the art of period performance, creating a virtual orchestra through their creative arrangements, perfoming from memory with swashbuckling virtuosity, heart-on-sleeve emotion and compelling stagecraft. Their repertoire ranges from obscure 17th century sonatas to the most famous works of Bach and Vivaldi, all presented in imaginative programmes with filmic titles: "Priest on the Run", "Nightmare in Venice", "Pirates of the Baroque", "Johann, I'm Only Dancing!"
Red Priest’s latest venture is the launch of its own record label, Red Priest Recordings, distributed globally by Nimbus. Alongside the re-release of the group’s highly acclaimed back-catalogue is the brand new recording, Pirates of the Baroque. Many exciting projects are planned for the coming months, including solo recordings from group members, an all-Bach CD, a DVD of the Four Seasons and downloadable sheet music - watch this website for further developments!
