Unsung Heroines

ABOUT

Opening this year’s Musica Mundi series at the German International School in Cape Town, the Cape Consort celebrates Barbara Strozzi’s 400^th birthday with an all-female Baroque composer’s programme. Highlights of Strozzi’s rich oeuvre of over 100 published compositions are presented together with music by Francesca Caccini, Isabella Leonarda, Bianca Maria Meda and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani.

As the largely misogynistic 17^th century saw the accomplishments of women as dangerously disrupting the social order, the achievements of these extraordinary composers is all the more remarkable. Not only did they succeed to make their voices heard, they also managed to secure support from church, court and – especially lucky for us – from publishers. Apart from discovering most nuanced and rarely heard musical expressions, reviving their music moreover amounts to an especially interesting case of gender study.

Tessa Roos and Nathan Julius, two South African singers, currently furthering their studies in Early Music at the renowned Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, are joining Antoinette Blyth with solo pieces, duets and a trio accompanied by a large and colourful basso continuo comprising virginal, lute, chitarrone, Baroque cello and Baroque guitar, as well as two Baroque violins.

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