Agata della Pietà

Agata della Pietà (24 March 1712 - 17 October 1769) was an Italian composer, singer, and teacher of music at the Venetian charitable institution known as the Ospedale della Pietà. A foundling admitted in infancy to the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, she received thorough musical training starting in her childhood through the instruction of an older woman named Apollonia, who was also top soprano vocalist for the Ospedale. After years of training, Agata became a performing member in the institution’s musical ensembles, called the coro; she later became a soprano soloist, singing teacher, and administrator. She is known to have been the soloist in motets commissioned from Giovanni Porta and Andrea Bernasconi, in whose manuscripts she is mentioned by name; she is also mentioned in an anonymous verse tribute to musicians of the Pietà cori which dates to around 1740. Agata della Pietà is known to have written several musical compositions, including a setting of Psalm 134 Ecce nunc for compline. Harpsichordist, Elizabeth Anderson completed a reconstruction of this work in 2022 and it was first performed by the Australian Chamber Choir in Melbourne in May 2022. Other known compositions a