Venice, Italy (WHTM) He was known as The Red Priest. He was one of the best known composers and performers of the Baroque era. He wrote over 500 concertos, as well as sacred choral works, operas, sonatas, sinfonias-there was hardly a musical genre at which he did not try his hand. And yet, after his death, he was forgotten for two centuries.

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678. His father was a professional violinist and taught Antonio to play the violin. His musical talent showed itself early; he wrote a liturgical work, Laetatus Sum, at age 13.

At age 15, he began to study for the priesthood and was ordained at the age of 25 in 1703. At some point, he was nicknamed il Prete Rosso, “The Red Priest”. The most likely reason for this was his red hair, a family trait.

In 1703 he became maestro di violino (master of violin) for an orphanage for girls, Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy). The Ospedale had a well known and highly regarded orchestra and choir. All the girls were given musical education; the best stayed on to become permanent musicians.

Vivaldi would stay there for 30 years, teaching the orphans music theory and how to play instruments, conducting performances, and composing, composing, composing.

As if he wasn’t busy enough at the Ospedale, he started composing operas–as a sideline. Over the course of his life, he would write at least 50 operas.

Starting around 1717 Vivaldi spent three years as Maestro di Cappella of the court of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua in the northwest of Italy. The beautiful countryside is thought to have inspired his most famous work; a set of four concertos known as The Four Seasons.

Each concerto portrayed one season, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. They were revolutionary, reproducing in music sounds like the songs of birds, creeks, storms, and children ice-skating. Today, if you tune into a classical music station, and the name Vivaldi comes up, the chances are they’ll be playing one of the Four Seasons.

But, as was so often the case with composers of that era, he came to be seen as old fashioned, as musical tastes changed. He would end up dying in poverty on July 28, 1741.

Then he and his music would be forgotten for almost two centuries. Then in the early 1920s, he began to interest musicians and music scholars. Copies of his works, long thought lost, were found in libraries and monasteries all across Europe.

Vivaldi’s works are cataloged by an RV numbers, for “Répertoire des oeuvres d’Antonio Vivaldi”. (The “Spring” Concerto from The Four Seasons, for instance, is RV 269.) Interest in his music continues to grow, and every once in a while, another of his “lost” compositions is discovered. It seems unlikely The Red Priest is going to vanish into obscurity again.