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Music, Math, and Mind:
The approach to contemporary musical education is rooted in a system developed to train orphans and abandoned children in Renaissance Naples. The word conservatori meant "places to save children," and music provided a way for those who did not inherit a family trade to learn to compose, play instruments, and sing to make a living. The original con-servatory, Santa Maria di Loreto, founded in Naples in 1537, was immensely successful, training the composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Domenico Cimarosa. The movement spread, with Antonio Vivaldi teaching at the Ospedale della Pietà for orphaned and abandoned girls in Venice and composing concerti like the Four Seasons for the school orchestra.