Hildegard von Bingen

During the High Middle Ages, Hildegard of Bingen, also known as Saint Hildegard and the Rhine Sibyl, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath who worked as a writer, composer, mystic, philosopher, visionary, as well as medical writer and practitioner. She was one of Europe's most powerful women during her lifetime.

She composed very expressive music that defied conventions at the time. In addition, because she was a rare woman in the Middle Ages who left manuscripts of her songs behind, the music world was able to find her work and resuscitate her songs around the 800th anniversary of her birth.

Aged: 81 (1098-1179)

Nationality: German

Some of best-known compositions: Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations,…