Cozzolani's Mass for Four Voices

Although her music has largely been forgotten, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani was a particularly significant composer in mid-seventeenth-century Milan. A Benedictine nun, Cozzolani wrote virtuosic music for her fellow sisters to sing in the convent. Amidst threats of censorship that arose due to the high level of the nuns’ musical performances and the elaborate nature of her music, Cozzolani skillfully negotiated with the authorities to maintain the musical traditions she had helped establish. The centerpiece of this program is Cozzolani’s Mass for four singers and continuo, which we intersperse with sacred motets by other seventeenth-century Italian nun composers.
Musicians: Grace Srinivasan, soprano; Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto; Aaron Cates, tenor; Corbin Phillips, bass; Amy Domingues, viola da gamba; Paula Maust, organ