On Anna Maria della Pietà, a Violin Virtuoso of the 18th Century

For many centuries, opportunities for women to live their lives as professional musicians were scarce. There were, however, exceptions – as in the case of Anna Maria della Pietà.

Gaudenzio Ferrari, Public Domain

Anna Maria (c. 1696 - 1782) grew up in an orphanage, the so-called Ospedale della Pietà, which was established by women from both the nobility and the middle class in Venice in the fourteenth century as one of the four Ospedali Maggiori to serve the poor and sick. While the Ospedali’s original purpose was not to provide music education, a significant transformation occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries, as music became a vital source of funding for these institutions. Later, the Ospedali evolved into what we now understand as the musical conservatories (the original meaning of “conservatorio” refers to the protection of children, “conserving” them in these institutions).

Many of the infants left at the Ospedale della Pietà’s baby hatch appear to have been the children of prostitutes, while others faced financial hardships after losing their fathers. In this context, the Ospedale assumed a patriarchal role, providing these children with care and support. Unlike their male counterparts, who had a wider range of professional opportunities, the female wards, known as figlie (daughters), often found their place in the musical ensemble, or coro, if they showed aptitude. Historical records indicate that women were performing as musicians at the Ospedale della Pietà at least by the late 16th century.

In exploring the wider musical landscape of 17th-century Venice, it’s essential to distinguish between the convents housing nuns of high social standing and the Ospedali. The Patriarch of Venice imposed strict decrees in 1575 and 1617 that prohibited nuns from playing musical instruments (not so in many other Italian cities, where nuns actively participated in music), resulting in much of the music in Venetian convents being performed by professional male musicians. In contrast, the Ospedali provided a unique environment where impoverished women not only played instruments but, in the case of the so-called figlie privilegiate di coro, even took on teaching roles.

During the period in which music rose in importance at the Ospedali, patrons had begun to hire male professional musicians, including Antonio Vivaldi, who took on the role of maestro de violino in September 1703 to teach the figlie di coro. Among his students was Anna Maria, who, with Vivaldi’s mentorship, emerged as a celebrated violin virtuoso of the 18th century. Notably, thirty-one of Vivaldi’s concerti for the violin were specifically composed for her (click here to listen to some of them). A handwritten 160-page scorebook belonging to Anna Maria, containing such concerti, has been preserved, with some of the embellishments probably added by her own hand.

There can be no doubt that Anna Maria was a prominent figure in the sacral musical landscape of her time, celebrated for her talent and virtuosity. Contemporary reports from leading writers highlight her remarkable skills, setting her apart as a central figure in Venice’s musical life. Joachim Christoph Nemeitz, for example, praised her talent, calling the orchestras of the Ospedali  “as grand as any at the courts of Europe.” Johann G. Walther, meanwhile, acknowledged Anna Maria’s exceptional status by including her in his Musikalisches Lexikon, and Baron Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz referred to her as the “premier violinist in Europe.”

While Anna Maria is the most well-known woman musician of her era, her legacy represents many others who shared similar skills. The musicological research of the past few decades has uncovered over 800 female musicians from Venice, with about a quarter linked to the Ospedale della Pietà. Yet the Venetian Ospedali still stand out as a unique phenomenon in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially because women were generally prohibited from performing music by canon law.