Red Priest

Red Priest is one of the major success stories on the international early music scene today. Named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, this extraordinary English ensemble has redefined the art of baroque music performance, combining the fruits of extensive research with swashbuckling virtuosity, creative re-composition and compelling stagecraft. The group performs largely from memory, allowing an operatic level of freedom and interaction, and its programs are drawn from myriad baroque sources to create a kaleidoscopic range of moods and colours.

Formed in 1997, Red Priest now gives over 70 concerts a year in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe and the USA together with Radio and TV broadcasts. International music critics have described the Red Priest style as “electrifying”, “sheer daring”, “immaculately forged”, “sonically supercharged”, “brilliant and inspired”, “deliciously twisted”—but the group's extravagantly baroque ethos is perhaps best summed up in the words of English musicologist and broadcaster George Pratt: "If nobody goes over the top, how will we know what lies on the other side?"

The launch of Red Priest’s “Red Hot Baroque Show” – a dramatic marriage of baroque instrumental wizardry with modern stage and lighting technology took place in February 2005, and a major TV documentary for the South Bank Show (ITV 1) was broadcast in April 2005.

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Piers Adams was recently heralded in the Washington Post as “the reigning recorder virtuoso in the world today”.   He has performed in numerous festivals and at premiere concert halls throughout the world, including London’s Royal Festival, Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, as soloist with orchestras including the Philharmonia, the English Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Singapore Symphony and the BBC Symphony. Piers has made several solo CDs reflecting an eclectic taste, ranging from his award-winning Vivaldi début disc to David Bedford’s Recorder Concerto - one of many major works written for him. He has also researched, arranged and recorded a variety of romantic showpieces, which are a mainstay of his recital programs. He will shortly embark on a series of solo discs for Dorian. Full details of his performing activities can be found on www.piersadams.com.

Julia Bishop is one of the outstanding baroque violin specialists of her generation, with a virtuoso style described in the BBC Music Magazine as “psychedelic.” She has toured the world with most of the UK's leading period instrument orchestras, including the English Concert, of which she was a member for six years. She is now in great demand as an orchestral leader and soloist, in particular with the celebrated Gabrieli Consort, with whom she performs internationally and records for Deutsche Grammophon. She has also appeared as concerto soloist with Florilegium, the Brandenburg Consort and the Hanover Band, and regularly coaches and directs the baroque orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music, London. Julia made her solo debut for BBC Radio Three's ‘Music Restored’ performing virtuoso violin sonatas by Festing, and 2002 saw the recording of her first recital disc for Dorian.

Angela East is widely respected as one of the most brilliant and dynamic performers in the period instrument world, praised in The Times, London, for the “elemental power” of her cello playing. She has given numerous concerto performances in London's Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, and has performed as soloist and continuo cellist with many of Europe's leading baroque orchestras. Among her impressive list of concert credits are La Scala, Milan, Sydney Opera House, Versailles and Glyndebourne. In 1991 Angela formed ‘The Revolutionary Drawing Room’ which performs chamber works from the revolutionary period in Europe on original instruments, and whose first eight CDs have received glowing reviews world-wide.

Howard Beach's uniquely wide-ranging style of keyboard playing has been developed through years of partnering fine musicians in many different fields of music, as well as his own experience as an accomplished singer and violinist. Since 1989 he has worked regularly with Piers Adams in concert and in the recording studio as both harpsichordist and pianist - including
several performances in London's Wigmore Hall and tours throughout Europe, Canada and the Far East. He has also performed and recorded as a concerto soloist and continuo player with Les Arts Florissants, the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. Howard broadcasts frequently on radio and has been consultant and performer on programs for UK's Channel 4 TV.

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