Livia d'Arco was an Italian singer in the court of Alfonso II d'Este in Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

. She was sent there with the household of Margherita Gonzaga d'Este

Margherita Gonzaga d'Este

Margherita Gonzaga d'Este, Duchess of Ferrara was an Italian noblewoman, the daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua and Eleonora of Austria, and the sister of Vincent I, Duke of Mantua and Anna Caterina Gonzaga. She was the wife of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena, whom she married...

 at the time of Margherita's marriage to Alfonso in 1579, and was a young woman at the time, around fifteen. Livia was the daughter of a minor Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

n noble, and was perhaps sent to the court in Ferrara because of her musical potential. When she arrived she began studying the viol

Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...

 with Luzzasco Luzzaschi

Luzzasco Luzzaschi

Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city.As a pupil of Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi developed...

 and Ippolito Fiorini

Ippolito Fiorini

Ippolito Fiorini was a composer and lutenist, and the maestro di capella at the court of Alfonso II d'Este in Ferrara during its entire existence...

. After a few years of study she joined Laura Peverara

Laura Peverara

Laura Peverara or Peperara was an Italian virtuoso singer who was also a harpist and dancer; born and raised in Mantua. Her father, Vincenzo, was a merchant, an intellectual who tutored princes, leading to Laura being brought up in courtly society...

, Tarquinia Mola and Anna Guarini

Anna Guarini

Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti, was an Italian virtuoso singer of the late Renaissance. She was one of the most renowned singers of the age, and was one of the four concerto di donne at the Ferrara court of the d'Este family, for whom many composers wrote in a progressive style.- Life and murder...

 in the Concerto delle donne

Concerto delle donne

The concerto delle donne was a group of professional female singers in the late Renaissance court of Ferrara, Italy, renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity. The ensemble was founded by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, in 1580 and was active until the court was dissolved in 1597...

; the first record of her singing with them was in 1582. Like the other members of the Concerto, poems were written in her honor, specifically by Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...

 and Angelo Grillo

Angelo Grillo

Livio Celiano was the pen name of Don Angelo Grillo O.S.B. an Italian early baroque poet whose madrigal texts were set by Monteverdi, Orazio Vecchi, Luca Marenzio, Salamone Rossi and others....

 under the pseudonym Livio Celiano. In 1585 she was married to Conte Alfonso Bevilacqua.