Vivaldi Project Inc

It is the central belief of the Vivaldi Project that musical performances are Events. Music from the 17th and 18th century was conceived at a time when its very existence depended on the personal and spontaneous expressions of live performers for live audiences. Highly rhetorical in nature, music was viewed as a language in its own right―just as capable of communicating ideas and emotions, only through melody and harmony rather than words. It is interaction with the audience which renders each performance unique, and at a Vivaldi Project concert, the audience becomes an essential part of the music-making process.

The name, The Vivaldi Project, refers not only to the group's core repertoire―the extraordinary works of the virtuoso violinist and composer, Antonio Vivaldi―but also the project of probing into the roots of Vivaldi's distinctive musical style, which has had ramifications for music, art, and Vivaldi’s birthplace of Venice that reverberate into the 21st century. Vivaldi's innovative contributions to string writing, the concerto genre, and programmatic orchestral music place him as as a pivotal figure between earlier baroque composers and later classical composers. The Vivaldi Project explores this link through both chamber and orchestral works (those well-known and beloved as well as those rarely heard) from Stradella, Legrenzi, and Corelli, to J.S. Bach and his sons, and ultimately to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

The Vivaldi Project, and its educational arm, the Institute for Early Music on Modern Instruments, strive to build relationships with local arts organizations to bring a deeper appreciation for our classical music heritage to diverse metropolitan, rural, and underserved communities.