Musica Secreta

For over thirty years, Musica Secreta has performed, taught, and recorded music written by and for women from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The musicians, all women, perform with major ensembles including the Tallis Scholars, the Sixteen, Voces8, Stile Antico, the Marian Consort, Tenebrae, Magnificat, Siglo d’Oro, Ensemble Plus Ultra, the BBC Singers, Joglaresa, Fieri Consort, Chelys, and the Rose Consort. The director Professor Laurie Stras is a leader in discovering and promoting the work of historic women composers and musicians.

They have made ten CDs, four of which are of music exclusively by historic women composers (Barbara Strozzi, Lucrezia Vizzana, Margarita Cozzolani, Leonora d’Este). Their 2019 disc, From Darkness into Light: The Complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday by Antoine Brumel, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Early Music Award 2020, and their most recent recording, Mother Sister Daughter, was chosen by both the New Yorker and the New York Times among their top albums of 2022.

Recent appearances include Brighton Early Music Festival, the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Leamington Music, Kings Place, Stour Festival, Bloomington Early Music Festival, and in 2018, a special programme celebrating Plautilla Nelli for “Advancing Women Artists” in Florence.

Ailsa Campbell, Amy Carson, Victoria Couper, Yvonne Eddy, Hannah Ely, Elspeth Piggott, Kristiina Watt: sopranos
Luthien Brackett, Katharine Hawnt: mezzo-sopranos
Caroline Trevor: alto
Kristiina Watt: lute
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Claire Williams: organ and ensemble direction
Laurie Stras: director