Red Priest is a British Baroque instrumental group that was formed in 1997, originally with eleven members. Currently it is composed of four performers: Piers Adams - recorder, Julia Bishop - violin, Angela East - cello and David Wright - harpsichord. In America and the Far East the group collaborates with the Canadian baroque/Cape-Breton violinist David Greenberg in place of Julia Bishop. The group is named after the red-haired Italian priest and Baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi.
The quartet plays in a flamboyant, theatrical and virtuosic style making use of props, costumes, dramatic lighting and other effects. The pieces they perform are generally their own arrangements, though based very closely on the original music by Vivaldi, Bach, et al.
In addition to touring all over the world, Red Priest are a frequent guest on BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme. They have released several albums, including a contemporary take on Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, as well as an album of the programme for their 2009 concert tour: Pirates of the Baroque.
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or priest:
“He gets red roses in different places,
the head, that time he was as sleepy as a river,
the back, that time he was a broken scarecrow,
the arm like a diamond had bitten it,
the leg, twisted like a licorice stick....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Because the priest must have like every dog his day
Or keep us all awake with baying at the moon,
We and our dolls being but the world were best away.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)