British group Red Priest to perform
at BYU-Idaho

The baroque music ensemble Red Priest from England will perform two concerts at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 20 and 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Barrus Concert Hall.

Tickets are $12 for the general public and $5 for BYU-Idaho students. They can be purchased online at www.byui.edu/tickets or by calling the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office at 496-2230.

Presented by the BYU-Idaho Center Stage Performing Arts Series, Red Priest is one of the major success stories on the international early music scene today. Named after the flame-haired priest Antonio Vivaldi, the British 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 programs are drawn from myriad baroque sources to create a kaleidoscopic range of moods and colors.

Formed in 1997, Red Priest now gives over 60 concerts a year in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe, Australia, the Far East, Russia and especially the United States, together with radio and TV broadcasts. Its series of highly acclaimed CD recordings include "Priest on the Run," "Nightmare in Venice," "The Four Seasons" and "Pirates of the Baroque."

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?"