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.