Life > March 27, 2003

By Dana Zelig

Old Gold and Black Reviewer

Music students, classical music lovers and anyone who enjoys an energetic stage show should clear their schedules for the final Secrest Artists Series performance of the 2002-2003 season, which features the baroque quartet Red Priest 8 p.m., April 3 in Brendle Recital Hall. The group, named after Antonio Vivaldi — an influential composer and priest with distinctive red hair — is a British early music ensemble that has taken performance art to a new level.

The Denver Post described the group as “nothing short of electrifying,” and said the artists “combined a supremely accomplished level of musicianship with an almost superhuman energy and a sense of showmanship in a concert that will stand as one of the season’s best.” 

For those of us who have experienced chamber music as a somber affair of black-gowned and tuxedoed musicians who take their music and themselves very seriously, it may be hard to envision what this “showmanship” is about.

The first thing that comes to mind is the rock/bluegrass band Nickel Creek who played Wait Chapel in the Fall. Musicians Chris Thile and siblings Sean and Sarah Watkins comprise a string trio that combines choreography and humor on stage. Even to someone who knows their music, you cannot truly experience the band without seeing it in person.

So it seems is the case with Red Priest. According to the Washington Post, “The performance by British period-instrument quartet Red Priest of “The Four Seasons”… didn’t so much breath new life into Vivaldi as plunge an adrenaline-filled syringe into his heart…What made this zaniness work, was the players’ virtuosity and thorough understanding of the baroque idiom.”  With this kind of praise, you can’t help but get curious.

Lillian Shelton, Director of the Secrest Artists Series, said that Red Priest had been chosen for this season’s final show because, “In the rotation of events it was time to bring in an early music… something,” she said, adding that the last similar act we have hosted was the Anonymous 4 in 1999. “I wanted to find who was out there that was different, who would peak the student’s interest.” 

Shelton worked with Dr. Stewart Carter, Chair of the University’s Department of Music, to select the British group that she heard described as “over the top.”  She had asked Dr. Carter to see Red Priest two years ago when they toured to Charlotte, and according to her, “He liked what they did.” 

What many audiences respond to is this group’s “performance practice” (how they behave on stage).

Another factor that affected next week’s choice of music was the Annual Conference for the Society for 17th Century Music, which is being held at Wake Forest this year. Dr. Carter is on the planning committee for the conference, which will bring 60 scholars of 17th century music to campus April 3-6.

The quartet will be an integral part of the conference and will be preceded by a 7:10 pm talk by Eleanor McCrickard, professor of music and baroque specialist at UNC-G, in Scales Fine Arts Center, room 208. Red Priest, is Piers Adams on recorder — no, not the kind you played in elementary school — Julie Bishop on violin, Angela East on cello and Howard Beach on harpsichord and piano.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens and non-Wake Forest students, and free for University students.

I will certainly be attending this year’s final performance, and Director Lillian Shelton hopes you will too, because the Series strongly focuses on securing acts we will appreciate.

“Even if students don’t think they like early classical music,” said Shelton, “I think they will like this. I think they will be surprised.”