"Were Botticelli's Primavera to burst into song, she would probably sound like this." - Independent on Sunday
For twenty years, Musica Secreta - co-directors Deborah Roberts and Laurie Stras - has been at the forefront of the discovery and interpretation of music for and by early modern women. We bring together internationally-acclaimed musicians and ground-breaking research to perform this fascinating and continually emerging repertoire.
Our programmes illustrate the many faces of women musicians in the 16th and 17th centuries: courtiers, courtesans, actresses and cloistered nuns. There is always an element of story-telling, theatre, and surprise, in our performances, for the women who first made our music had lives as compelling as the music itself.
Get ready for the festival season: the Sirens go casual with a t-shirt and a trance track. Buy the t-shirt in the web shop and get a free download of summer loveliness.
"a sense of scholarship as well as intense musicality runs through the whole: fascinating and lovely." - Gramophone, Editor's Choice, November 2009
Sacred Hearts, Secret Music is our award-winning CD, the result of a collaboration with novelist Sarah Dunant. From 2010-2012, a concert-length version of the show toured around the British Isles. See the Sacred Hearts live page for reviews and links.