Antonio Vivaldi Winter from The Four Seasons

You are my winter sunshine, warming my heart even on the coldest days. Can orchestras bring people, animals, landscapes and stories to life – using music? Trailblazer Antonio Vivaldi thought so. Around 300 years ago when he wrote The Four Seasons he was one of the first people to compose music that was designed to remind listeners of places and things in the world around Vivaldi was taught to play the violin by his father and they regularly performed together in Venice. After training as a priest Vivaldi soon switched to teaching the violin to girls at an orphanage in Venice, where part of his job was to compose music for them to play. No one could accuse Vivaldi of being workshy – he composed 500 concertos (for instruments like the violin, mandolin, flute and cello), 46 operas and many other works, including the beautiful choral piece Vivaldi was a virtuoso violinist and so it’s no wonder that the violin is star of The Four Seasons. Each