Piers Adams (born 21 December 1963) is a British recorder player and member of baroque group Red Priest. After attending

Reading Blue Coat School ('Truth Conquers All) , established = , closed = , type = Independent day school Public school , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

Adams trained as an astrophysicist, but turned professionally to the recorder at age 21. Known as the "modern day pied piper" his performing career has taken him all over the world to places such as South America, Australia, Japan, Russia and Europe. Adams has received numerous awards for his recorder playing, including first prize in the inaugural Moeck International Recorder Competition (1985) which led to debuts in the premier London venues such as the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

and Royal Albert Hall As a concert soloist, Adams performs with orchestras including the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

s, the

Philharmonia The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...

, the Academy of Ancient Music, Guildhall Strings, the English Sinfonia, the City of London Sinfonia,

London Musici London Musici is a chamber orchestra founded in 1988 by Mark Stephenson. It has given over 1000 performances as the associate orchestra for the Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British da ...

and the

Singapore Symphony Orchestra The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Singapore. Its principal concert venue is the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The orchestra also gives concerts at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, and performs abou ...

. CD recordings range from his award-winning debut of Vivaldi Concertos (Cala) to David Bedford's heroic Recorder Concerto (NMC) – one of many major works written for him. CDs available include ''Recorder Bravura'' (romantic showpieces), ''Shine and Shade'' (20th century sonatas) and seven Red Priest CDs: ''Priest on the Run'', ''Nightmare in Venice'', ''The Four Seasons'', ''Pirates of the Baroque'', ''Johann, I'm Only Dancing'', ''Handel in the wind'' and ''Baroque Bohemians''. Piers Adams has been actively involved in education over the years and has held professorships at a number of UK music colleges. Alongside fellow Red Priest member

Howard Beach Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, to the south by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel, to the east by 1 ...

on harpsichord, Adams regularly gives ''"Recorder Roadshows"'' which include master classes and workshops for children combined with a concert performance of specially written works.

References

External links

Piers Adams website

Red Priest website

Upbeat Classical Management
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Piers 1963 births Living people British classical musicians British recorder players British performers of early music Factory Records artists People educated at Reading Blue Coat School Albany Records artists