Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was acknowledged as a significant musician in her own lifetime and has taken her place in our modern-day canon of Baroque composers. Born to a family of musicians and instrument makers, Elisabeth was a precocious talent who famously sang and played before Louis XIV at the age of five. Following her childhood music education under her father’s tutelage, she spent three years in the household of the King’s mistress, Madame de Montespan. After marrying organist Marin de La Guerre in 1684, Elisabeth left the royal court and pursued a musical career in Paris, publishing collections of keyboard works, violin sonatas, cantatas, and even an opera with royal patronage. After the tragic death of her young son, and her husband’s death soon after, she continued to support herself through composing, performing, and teaching, as well as through salon concerts in her home. She died in Paris in 1729.
—Rona Nadler
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