Brinkburn Music Festival

Red Priest

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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, heart-on-sleeve emotion and compelling stagecraft.

The group performs largely from memory, allowing an operatic level of freedom and interaction, and its programmes are drawn from numerous 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, Australia and especially the USA, together with radio and TV broadcasts. The group has made three recordings, Priest on the Run, Nightmare in Venice and The Four Seasons. Red Priest's performances have been described as "electrifying", "sheer daring", "immaculately forged", "sonically supercharged", "brilliant and inspired", "deliciously twisted" - but the group's extravagantly Baroque style is perhaps best summed up in the words of musicologist and broadcaster George Pratt: "If nobody goes over the top, how will we know what lies on the other side?"