Elizabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre

Elizabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was one of the earliest-known female composers who lived and worked during the Baroque era. She was born into a musical family of organists and even later married an organist! She herself was a prodigy, first performing for King Louis XIV at age five. She was the first woman in France to write an opera and was well known for her improvisations and writing works for the keyboard, chamber music, and vocal music.

After the loss of both her husband and son, she retreated from the public eye and focused more on in-home concerts and composition.