Featuring guest artists:

Freya Creech, baroque violin

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Join Musica Spira for a concert featuring Chiara Cozzolani's exquisite Mass for Four Voices and other gems from the Italian Baroque convents

More than half of all Italian women spent their lives in convents in the seventeenth century. Cloistered from the world, these women were often free to pursue artistic and scholarly endeavors at extraordinarily high levels. At least thirteen nuns composed stunningly virtuosic music across the seventeenth century in Italy, and countless more musical women performed these masterpieces behind screens for adoring audiences. At times, the women's music-making was so extraordinary that it attracted the suspicion of church authorities who would then enact various levels of censorship. Despite these restrictions, the musical women in convents found ways to continue perfecting their craft.

The centerpiece of this concert is Chiara Margarita Cozzolani's Mass for Four singers, a stunning work she wrote while living in a Benedictine convent in Milan. The program also features pieces by other seventeenth-century Italian nuns, showcasing the wide range of high-level music making that women achieved in the Baroque period.

Featuring guest artists:

Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto

Aaron Cates, tenor

Corbin Phillips, bass

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Join Musica Spira for a concert featuring Chiara Cozzolani's exquisite Mass for Four Voices and other gems from the Italian Baroque convents

More than half of all Italian women spent their lives in convents in the seventeenth century. Cloistered from the world, these women were often free to pursue artistic and scholarly endeavors at extraordinarily high levels. At least thirteen nuns composed stunningly virtuosic music across the seventeenth century in Italy, and countless more musical women performed these masterpieces behind screens for adoring audiences. At times, the women's music-making was so extraordinary that it attracted the suspicion of church authorities who would then enact various levels of censorship. Despite these restrictions, the musical women in convents found ways to continue perfecting their craft.

The centerpiece of this concert is Chiara Margarita Cozzolani's Mass for Four singers, a stunning work she wrote while living in a Benedictine convent in Milan. The program also features pieces by other seventeenth-century Italian nuns, showcasing the wide range of high-level music making that women achieved in the Baroque period.

Featuring guest artists:

Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto

Aaron Cates, tenor

Corbin Phillips, bass

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Stories of impactful women’s anguish and triumphant victories have inspired musical composers for centuries. This program pairs Baroque era narratives of Mary's sorrow in the Stabat Mater with a powerful retelling of Judith beheading Holofernes.

Musicians: Grace Srinivasan (soprano), Freya Creech (violin), Amy Domingues (viola da gamba), Paula Maust (harpsichord) 

Come hear excerpts from our debut album! Music for two sopranos and continuo highlights Isabella Leonarda and Maria Perucona’s exquisite poetry and musical language.

Musicians: Grace Srinivasan and Crossley Hawn (sopranos), Amy Domingues (viola da gamba), and Paula Maust (harpsichord).

This program celebrates the bold act of early modern women composers telling the stories of Biblical heroines. The compelling stories of Eve, Mary, Esther, and Anna are portrayed in music for soprano, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. Each composer on the program has her own illuminating story that is brought to light alongside the narratives of the women they wrote about.  

$20 Suggested donation - Cash, Paypal (@musicaspira), Zelle and credit card available at the door.

Musicians: Grace Srinivasan (soprano), Amy Domingues (viola da gamba), Paula Maust (harpsichord)

Across the seventeenth century, several Italian convents fostered creative environments in which women composed sacred music for their fellow sisters to sing during services of the Divine Office. Many musical women excelled so much behind the cloistered walls of the convent that they achieved tremendous notoriety in their respective cities. This program brings the nuns’ fascinating stories and exquisite musical works to life for contemporary audiences. 

Musicians: Grace Srinivasan (Soprano), Kristen Dubenion-Smith (alto), Amy Domingues (viola da gamba), Paula Maust (harpsichord)

Music from the convents of Italy

Featuring guest artists:

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto

Portrayals of the Biblical heroines Esther, Mary, Eve, and Anna

Featuring guest artist:

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Music by 17th century Italian women

Featuring guest artists:

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Crossley Hawn, soprano

PURCHASE TICKETS

Music by Isabella Leonarda and Maria Perucona

Featuring guest artists:

Freya Creech, violin

Karen Dekker, violin

Amy Domingues, viola da gamba

Crossley Hawn, soprano

Musica Spira is thrilled to welcome guest artists Crossley Hawn and Julie Bosworth, sopranos; Teresa Deskur and Sarah Shodja on recorders; and Joanna Blendulf on cello.

This concert takes place as part of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival.

More information at and tickets available HERE

Tickets and more: www.folger.edu/whats-on/musica-spira/

Women have been actively involved in the process of music-making as performers and composers since antiquity, although their contributions have often been overshadowed in our historical narratives. Seventeenth-century Italy, in particular, was home to a number of women whose musical works would come to define the most important genres of the Baroque period. Musica Spira’s program features music by four women who excelled as professional musicians in a variety of settings. Isabella Leonarda and Lucrezia Vizzana spent their lives in convents composing sacred motets and sonatas for their fellow sisters. Francesca Caccini was the highest-paid musician at the Medici court and the first woman to write a fully-staged musical dramatic work. Barbara Strozzi was one of the most prolific composers of her time, publishing eight volumes of cantatas that she performed in her father’s private salon.

Join us for our concert “An Extraordinary Innovation," which celebrates the accomplishments of the virtuosic professional women singers in the Ferrarese concerto delle donne. We're thrilled to once again be joined by guest sopranos Crossley Hawn and Julie Bosworth who bring their immense artistry to this wonderful music.

Suggested Donation: $15-20

About the program:

Amateur women had performed in the Court of Ferrara for some time, and in the early 1580s, Duke Alfonso II hired highly-skilled professional women singers to entertain his elite guests. Singing works by Luzzasco Luzzaschi, these extraordinary women were immediately successful, garnering a wide audience and commanding astonishing performance fees.

Music for three virtuosic sopranos quickly became a trend in various Italian courts and remained popular throughout the seventeenth century. Courts competed with one another to win the best singers, and composers were commissioned to write new music for them. Our program includes works by Luzzaschi, Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Luigi Rossi, and Francesca Caccini that were inspired by performances given by Laura Pevarara, Anna Guarini, and Livia d’Arco, the most renowned sopranos in the Ferrarese concerto delle donne.

Musica Spira is joined by cellist Jamie Gallupe for a program featuring works premiered and performed by women.