The Vivaldi Church

Across two continents and three-hundred years, a love for the life and music of Antonio Vivaldi unites our three main characters—Rose, Peter, and Chiara—as they come to terms with their own losses and circumstances.

In the late 1700s, Chiara dal Violino is one of the last great soloists of the Ospedali Grandi, the all-female orchestra/choir housed within Venice's asylums for the orphaned, abandoned, destitute, and incurably ill. Chiara, left there as an infant, trained under Antonio Vivaldi to become a celebrated violin virtuoso, a woman who must be heard but never seen, playing out the sight for the rich and powerful, and never even given a last name.

In the 1990s, 13-years-old Peter discovers his aunt, his sole caretaker since the death of his mother, dead on the floor. He is lost—no relatives, no resources, not even a clean change of clothes. He attempts to attach himself emotionally to his orchestra teacher, who, while well-meaning, may not be up to keeping the promises she makes. But he does have one solace and escape—his interest in the violin and the rich history surrounding it.

It's 2019, and Rose, a twenty-one-year-old violinist, is visiting Venice for her first time, as a featured soloist with her college orchestra. Rose is there to learn about and from the Ospedali Grandi. But neither her studies nor changing continents means she can escape her growing estrangement with her boyfriend back home, nor her budding relationship with her friend and new, exciting but confusing, lover. Nor does it erase the self-doubts that cloud her as she prepares to perform a piece written by Vivaldi for Chiara dal Violino.

All three lives intertwine around a shared passion and central question: how does music provide grace and a sense of belonging in the world for three young people, decades and centuries apart?