Barbara Strozzi was born out of wedlock in 1619 Venice, raised a family without ever marrying, and had no church or court backing. Yet she published more printed secular vocal music than any composer in her city, man or woman. This episode explores how she navigated a society designed to keep her silent and engineered an unprecedented independent career.

We follow her upbringing in the household of poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi, a power player in the Accademia degli Incogniti, and her survival of the plague that killed a third of Venice. We look at her composition lessons with Francesco Cavalli, the Accademia degli Unisoni her father founded as a stage for her, her fraught relationship with nobleman Giovanni Paolo Vidman, and the loan at nearly 10 percent interest she structured to protect her children. Finally, we examine how her eigh ...