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Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini
Eighteenth century Italian composer, harpsichordist and singer Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini was born Maria Teresa Agnesi in Milan on 17 October 1720 into the lesser nobility. We know very little about her, except that her father, Pietro Agnesi, provided initial education for Maria Teresa and her older sister Maria Gaetana, who was a mathematician and philosopher, and that she married Pier Antonio Pinottini on 13 June 1752.
Most of her compositions have been lost. Those surviving are largely for keyboard, voice or both. There are very few performances of her music in the 21st century and only a few recordings.
French traveller Charles de Brosses and Count Gerolamo Riccati were impressed by her music, and Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa and Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis were her patrons.
Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini died in Milan on 19 January 1795, aged seventy-four.