Our three-concert summer series celebrates women in all aspects of musical creation, performance, and experience by delving into how women were influential as patrons, how women historically seized the spotlight as performers (both as singers and instrumentalists), and how women made strides in the still-male dominated world of music composition.

Our first concert (out of three this summer) explores music originally composed for famous female performers. During the Baroque period, musical performance was one of the most important ways in which a woman could make a career for herself independently of male support. Through singing, primarily, but also instrumental performance, talented musical women could become financially and socially independent. Our concert will present music written for some of these famous and powerful female performers, including music written for the Three Ladies of Ferrara in the late 16th century, and arias for Handel’s famous sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. Additionally, we will feature music by Monteverdi originally composed for castrati, male singers who underwent an operation before puberty to preserve their high voices. These male singers further complicate issues of gender in the early modern era and will provide a necessary counterpoint to our exploration of women and inclusion in music.

Join Dr. Alison DeSimone (UMKC Conservatory of Music & Dance) for a pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm, prior to the performance!