Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

Although he stopped going to the Mass soon after getting ordained as a priest, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi never gave up his priesthood and remained unmarried.

At the age of 48, Vivaldi met 17-year old soprano Anna Tessieri Giro in Mantua who accompanied him on his tours across Europe with her half-sister Paolina. Though Antonio insisted that there was no romantic involvement between them, there were several speculations about a romantic relationship.

He died of a heart attack on July 28, 1741 at the age of 63 in Vienna, Austria.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy. His father was Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a barber by profession and also a violinist who used to play at the San Marco basilica orchestra. His mother was Camilla Calicchio. His father was a co-founder of an association of musicians known as ‘Sovvegnodei musicisti di Santa Cecilia’ whose president was Giovanni Legrenzi, a veteran Baroque composer.

He had eight siblings named Iseppo Santo, Iseppo Gateno, Bonaventura Tomaso, Margarita Gabriela, Cecilia Maria, Gerolama Michela, Francesco Gaetano and Zanetta Anna.

Vivaldi wanted to play wind instruments from his childhood but could not fulfill his dream as he suffered from asthma.

In 1693 at the age of 15 he started to study to become a priest andgot ordained as a priest when he was 25 years old in the year 1703.

As his parents did not earn much and the family was big, Antonio chose to become a priest as it would enable him to get a good education free of cost.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi started his career in music by becoming a violin teacher at an orphanage for girls in Venice called ‘Ospedaledella Pieta’ in 1703. He composed a large number of pieces for the female ensemble consisting of girls at this orphanage during this time.

In addition to his work at the Pieta, hewas able to have a steady income throughout his life by selling his compositions to wealthy patrons including King Louis XV of France and Emperor Charles VI of Austria.

In 1704 he was allowed to abstain from Mass and priestly duties because of his respiratory problems but it did not prevent him from conducting orchestras or teaching music.

In 1704 he was appointed as the teacher for ‘viola all’inglese’, a bass viol used in English orchestras in the seventeenth century in addition to his duties as a violin teacher.

In 1705 Giuseppe Sala published Antonio’s first ‘Opus 1’ titled ‘Connor Cassara’ which was made of 12 sonatas for two violins and a basso continuo.

The greatest and most popular wok of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was a series of concertosnamed ‘Four Seasons’ which he had composed to be played on the violin unlike other concertos that have been composed to be played mainly on the piano.

Another series of concertos that he especially composed for the female ensemble at the ‘Ospedaledella Pieta’ are still being performed to this day.

He has also composed more than 60 sacred vocal musicalpieces which include solo motets, works for single and double choruses and for orchestras.