Musica Secreta

Musica Secreta
OriginLondon, England
GenresEarly music, Renaissance music, Baroque music
Years active1991–present
LabelsAmon Ra, Linn, Divine Art, Obsidian
Members
  • Laurie Stras
  • Katharine Hawnt
  • Sally Dunkley
  • Yvonne Eddy
  • Hannah Ely
  • Kat Carson
  • Nancy Cole
  • Bethany Horak-Hallett
  • Caroline Trevor
  • Kim Porter
  • Claire Williams
  • Alison Kinder
Past members
Websitewww.musicasecreta.com

Musica Secreta is a British vocal ensemble that was founded in 1991 by soprano Deborah Roberts to explore music written by and for women in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 2000, musicologist Laurie Stras joined the ensemble as a co-director. The group has made several award-winning albums. They collaborated with novelist Sarah Dunant in a musical dramatization of Dunant's novel Sacred Hearts which ran between 2009 and 2012.

Their album Lucrezia Borgia's Daughter (2017) is a recording of the earliest known published music intended for performance by nuns. The recording features motets printed in the anonymous Musica quinque vocum motteta materna lingua vocata printed in 1543; some may have been written by Eleonora d'Este, the only surviving daughter of Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara.