Her Perspective

Grace Srinivasan ~ soprano
Paula Maust ~ harpsichord
With guest artist:
Amy Domingues ~ viola da gamba

Women have been actively involved in the process of music-making as composers, performers, teachers, copyists, and patrons since antiquity, although their contributions have often been overshadowed in our historical narratives. Likewise, the life stories of historical women were rarely told from the woman’s point of view in literature, music, and art. “Her Perspective” is a unique program of early modern compositions about the Biblical heroines Eve, Mary, Anne, and Esther written by women from Italy and France. Music by Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Antonia Bembo, Barbara Strozzi, and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.

Musica Spira (Music Breathes) brings the underrepresented stories of early modern women musicians to life through thought-provoking programs that shed light on women’s contributions to music history. Co-Directors Grace Srinivasan and Paula Maust combine scholarly research with innovative musical programming to create concert themes that “draw musical traditions of the past and present into renewed conversations about the importance of life and values” (The Wilson Center). Sign up for the ensemble’s mailing list at www.musicaspira.com, where you can also read more about their debut recording of music by the seventeenth-century Italian nuns Isabella Leonarda and Maria Perucona.