ELIZABETH JACQUET de la GUERRE (1665 – 1729): composer, improviser extraordinaire and harpsichordist to the Sun King. Born 17 March into a family of harpsichord makers on the Ile St Louis in Paris, her father took her to play for King Louis Quatorze when she was just five and by the time she was in her teens she was playing in his orchestra - the first female harpsichordist to play in public. She had her father to thank partly for that – very enlightened, he gave her exactly the same education as his sons. Her first opus came out when she was 22 and though she composed in all genres, including the first French opera by a woman, it’s for her totally original pieces for clavecin that she is best remembered and quote, “her marvellous facility for playing preludes and fantasies for half an hour off the cuff”
Presented by composer Joan Tower for International Women’s Month in March, written and produced with Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
