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The Secret Garden Cafe Concerts: La Follia

Tufnell Park, Acland Burghley School Assembly Hall

Saturday 18 April 2026, 14:30

Coming soon

General Booking opens on Monday 16 March

Music includes

DE LA GUERRE Trio Sonata No.1 in G minor
LEONARDA ‘Ave suavis dilectio’
CACCINI ‘Chi è costei’
TURNER Lesson No.1 from Six Lessons for the Harpsichord
PORPORA Sinfonia da Camera Op.2 No.3
DI GAMBARINI ‘Un Giorno piu chiaro’
PURCELL Evening Hymn
VIVALDI ‘La Follia’ Variations

Price

£25

Priority booking

Sat 14 March 2026, 9:00am

General booking

Mon 16 March 2026, 11:00am

A celebration of the Baroque’s fiercely brilliant women composers opens our new series of coffee concerts, with soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez.

In their time these women were celebrated. They wrote bold music performed before kings and in prestigious theatres and shaped the musical life of Europe. Yet in the centuries that followed, their names faded from the story.

This concert brings them back into the limelight.

At the glittering court of Louis XIV, the wildly talented Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665–1729) was acclaimed by the public and her peers. In Florence, Francesca Caccini (1587–1640s) was at the heart of early opera scene in the city and wrote the first known opera by a woman in 1625.

In England, Elizabeth Turner (who died in 1756) and Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731–1765) challenged expectations, performing in public and publishing their own music at a time when this was considered inappropriate.

In Venice, the remarkable musicianship of the young women of the Ospedale della Pietà shaped the music of Antonio Vivaldi.

Today we celebrate their voices—bold, fierce and brilliant.

Inspired by the coffee-house culture that Johann Sebastian Bach enjoyed in 18th-century Leipzig, The Secret Garden Cafe Concerts are a new series of relaxed, intimate performances. Each concert is curated by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s principal players, uncovering rarely heard musical curiosities and forgotten gems that seldom appear on the modern concert stage.

For these events, the Assembly Hall at our home in Acland Burghley School will be transformed into a welcoming cafe setting. Your ticket includes a generous slice of cake and bottomless tea, coffee or soft drinks.

Violinist Julia Kuhn and bass player Cecelia Bryggemyer playing in the playground at Acland burghley School

Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki conducts the OAE with singer Florian Stortz

OAE musicians run a workshop in a school classroom

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We are redefining what it means to be an orchestra in the 2020s. Support the OAE today.

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The Secret Garden Cafe Concerts: La Follia

Tufnell Park, Acland Burghley School Assembly Hall

Saturday 18 April 2026, 14:30

Event detail

A celebration of the Baroque’s fiercely brilliant women composers opens our new series of coffee concerts, with soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez.

Did you know you can support the OAE?

Hear it first

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A celebration of the Baroque’s fiercely brilliant women composers opens our new series of coffee concerts, with soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez.

Did you know you can support the OAE?

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