Elizabeth Gambarini

The daughter of an Italian diplomat based in London, Elisabetta de Gambarini is one of the remarkable female polymaths of the 18th century. Thought to have been taught by Geminiani, she excelled as a singer, keyboard player, linguist and painter. The frontispiece of her Lessons for the Harpsichord, Op. 2 (1748), under an engraved portrait by the Royal Academician Nathaniel Hone, gives her date of birth as 7 September, 1731, but may have exaggerated her youth by subtracting a year from her true age. This volume contained both keyboard pieces—mainly dance movements in a straightforward late Baroque style—and English and Italian songs; her Op. 1, published earlier the same year, consisted only of keyboard pieces. Her Op. 3, 12 songs arranged for flute and continuo, appeared around two years later. Gambarini sang a number of oratorio roles for Handel during his Lenten seasons from around 1745, and during the 1760s gave concerts as an organist and composer. She died, possibly during childbirth, in 1765.