Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer born in Venice in 1678. He studied the priesthood for 10 years before becoming a priest in 1703. Known as the "Red Priest" for his bright red hair, Vivaldi spent most of his life teaching music at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where he wrote hundreds of compositions for the girls to perform behind a screen gallery as women were not allowed to perform in public. He later moved to Vienna where he died in 1741.