Maria Cattarina Calegari
Born: 1644, Bergamo, Italy
Died: after 1675, Milan, Italy
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC SOURCES
Maria Cattarina Calegari was a composer, singer, organist and nun well known for her vocal abilities in her native city of Bergamo. She became a Benedictine nun at S Margarita in Milan, before which her name was Cornelia. Calegari composed her first work, Motetti à voce sola, at 15 years of age in 1659.
None of her music has survived. It is likely that conflicts she had with the convent about her spiritual dowry and restrictions against convent music that were prevalent in the 1660s prevented her from preserving or distributing her compositions outside the convent walls.