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Leonarda’s talent flourishes within the confines of her convent. With Donald Macleod.

As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries apart, their stories and music are connected by their shared faith and their shared vocations. Both lived cloistered lives, shut away in convents and cut off from the everyday concerns of the societies in which they lived. Yet, they also enjoyed a profoundly rich and human connection with the world and with their God, revealed in the music and poetry they created and sent into the world.

Today, Donald Macleod shifts his focus to Isabella Leonarda, with singer and Leonarda champion, Candace Smith. They discuss how Leonarda’s destiny was chosen for her, by her eminent Italian family, who committed their daughter to a life of contemplation and isolation while still a teenager. And we see how music thrived alongside the strict observances within the convent in Novara.

Leonarda: Memento rerum
Cappella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith

Leonarda: Volo Jesum, Op 3 No 4
Kajsa Dahlbäck, soprano
Earthly Angels

Leonarda: Sonata, Op 16 No 3
Cappella Strumentale del Duomo di Novara, directed by Paolo Monticelli

Hildegard: Kyrie
Hildegard: Hymnus cum vox sanguinis
Tiburtina ensemble, directed by Barbora Kabátková

Leonarda: O anima mea
Cappella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith

Leonarda: Dixit dominus, Op 19
Cappella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith