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Portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, François Morellon La Cave, 1725, engraving, detail. - (Rijksmuseum)

Antonio Vivaldi, the son of a violinist, became a priest and music teacher at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where he composed many of his works. He abandoned his ecclesiastical career to devote himself to music, becoming famous throughout Europe for his compositions, including 'L'estro armonico' and 'The Four Seasons'.

A Venetian musician, violinist and composer, he dedicated his entire life to music, his only passion. During his clerical interlude at the women's conservatory of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, he was ironically nicknamed Red Priest because of his hair colour.

He died in Vienna in 1741, leaving an indelible mark on Baroque music.

He owes his love of music to his violinist father Giovanni Battista, who played for several years in the chapel of St Mark's; he is said to have been a pupil of the musician Giovanni Legrenzi.Due to his poor health, he approached the church and was ordained a priest in 1703, soon after becoming a violin and composition teacher at the women's conservatory of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà. It was in this school intended for orphaned or abandoned girls, one of the four most famous in Venice, that he composed his main sacred and cantata music and concerts and assumed, as the years went by, the role

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