Vincenta da Ponte (''fl.'' second half of the 18th century) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, singer and instrumentalist. She was a member of the ''coro'', or music school, of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Ospedale della Pietà The Ospedale della Pietà was a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice. Like other Venetian ''ospedali'', the Pietà was first established as a hospice for the needy. A group of Venetian nuns, called the Consorelle di Santa Maria dell’Um ...

during the tenure of :it:Bonaventura Furlanetto as music director. Her origins are unknown, but her surname indicates that she was a member of a patrician family and not a foundling, as were most of the Ospidale's students; consequently, she would have been a tuition-paying student, or would have been awarded a scholarship. As a composer, Da Ponte is known only from an unpublished set of four dances included in a collection of '' monferrine'' and composed around 1775; the manuscript is held in the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello in

. Da Ponte is one of five composers known to have emerged from the ''coro'' of the Ospedale; the others include

Anna Bon Anna Bon (1738 – after 1769) was an Italian composer and performer. Her parents were both involved in music and traveled internationally; her father was Girolamo Bon, a Bolognese librettist and scenographer, and her mother was the singer Rosa ...

and the foundlings Agata, Michielina, and

Santa della Pietà Santa (also known as Sanza or Samaritana) della Pietà (''fl. ca.'' 1725 – ''ca.'' 1750, died after 1774) was an Italian singer, composer, and violinist. A foundling admitted in infancy to the Ospedale della Pietà, della Pietà received a ful ...

References

*Berdes, Jane L. "Da Ponte, Vincenta (''fl'' second half of the eighteenth century). Italian instrumentalist, singer and composer." The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel, eds. New York City; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995. p. 137. 18th-century Italian composers Italian women composers 18th-century births Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown {{Italy-composer-stub