Ann Ford, musicienne des Lumières

Ann Ford was a young woman intent on making a living from her art and performing in the cosmopolitan London of the Age of Enlightenment. A friend of the greatest artists of the time, she frequented the musicians Carl Friedrich Abel and Johan Christian Bach, as well as the painter Thomas Gainsborough and the writer Laurence Sterne. Attracted by curious or lost instruments, she loved to sing, accompanying herself on musical glasses, the viola da gamba or the English guitar. Her concerts, with their sweet whiff of scandal, drew crowds and set the tone for the chamber music of the time.<hr class=‘break-tag’ />Ann Ford paved the way for women musicians in England and marked her era with her resolutely free style. Music by Ann Ford (1737-1824), T.A. Arne (1710-1778), G.F. Haendel (1685-1759), C.F. Abel (1723-1787), JC. Bach (1735-1782