Cappella Clausura will present a rarely - if ever - heard Easter season mass for four voices and continuo instruments by the brilliant Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, one of the remarkable women who composed music in the convents of 17 ^th century Italy. The Mass will be performed in its entirety with interwoven propers including sacred motets and chants from the medieval, baroque, renaissance and modern eras. It will include Hilary Tann's Psalm 136 especially rewritten for high voices: "praise the Lord, who made the great lights!" The concert will feature special guest Catherine Liddell, theorbo.

Saturday, March 27, 2010, 8:00PM

Parish of the Messiah, 1900 Commonwealth Ave., Newton, MA

Sunday, March 28, 2010, 4:30PM

First Baptist Church, 190 Main St., Brattleboro, VT

as part of the Friends of Guilford Music series

Sunday, April 25, 2010, 5:00PM

Grace Church in Salem, 385 Essex St., Salem, MA

as part of Grace Church in Salem Music Series

CONTACT: Amanda Keil, General Manager: 617-314-9064 or manager@clausura.org

TICKETS: $20/ seniors, students $15 (series tickets available online or at venues)

WEB: www.clausura.org

Cappella CLAUSURA is an ensemble of sopranos, altos, and period instruments whose goal is to research and bring to light works written by women from the 8th century to the present day. Their intention is to dispel the notion that there are not now nor have there ever been gifted women composers. While Clausura performs music by all women composers, and champions living composers, they concentrate on repertoire by women in the cloister - clausura - during the Italian baroque period. During this extraordinary time, women were allowed to express themselves spiritually and artistically, and to publish their own music. History has been blind and deaf to these remarkable works; Cappella CLAUSURA brings vision and voice to them.

Clausura's concerts are "new musical experiences performed with exuberance and authority " - Lawrence Berman, Boston Musical Intelligencer