652) Giovanni Battista Vivaldi

Giovanni Battista Vivaldi (1655-1736). Father of composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi. A man of many talents, Giovanni was a barber before becoming a professional violinist. He taught the young Antonio to play the violin to a virtuosic standard, and even toured Venice with him.

- We don't have many information about him, but on Wikipedia in Italian we read "Contemporaneamente al lavoro di barbiere intraprese la carriera di violinista: il 23 marzo 1685 fu ingaggiato nella cappella di San Marco con il cognome Rossi (a causa probabilmente della pigmentazione dei suoi capelli)..." [Alongside the job as a barber, he undertook the violinist carrer: on the 23th May 1685 he was hired in the chapel of San Marco under the surname Rossi (probably because of his hair colour).] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Vivaldi