After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. Vivaldi began studying for the priesthood at the age of 15 and was ordained at 25, but was given dispensation to no longer say public Masses due to a health problem. Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons. Vivaldi composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than fifty operas. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into a widely accepted and followed idiom, which was paramount in the development of Johann Sebastian Bach's instrumental music. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel, Vivaldi is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was a Venetian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music.

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