Among all the people who prepared the so-called classical phase of music history in Italy, men like Lotti, Pugnani, Giardini, Giornovichi and others, the then famous violinist Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen stands out. She composed violin concertos herself and in 1773 published her own collection of 6 violin concertos in print, concertos which she presented on her tours throughout Europe. Lombardini was not an orphan, but because of her talent she was taken in young by the successful music educational system of the Venetian orphanages and trained as a violinist, singer, harpsichordist and composer. Tartini later accepted her as his pupil; a letter from Tartini to Lombardini on bowing, fingering and trilling techniques for playing the violin has survived.  In order not to remain bound to Venice as a nun or by contract for life, she married the violinist Lodovico Sirmen, himself also a composer. After a few tours together, the two separated again and Lombardini toured Europe as a violinist and singer accompanied by a priest. In Paris, a critic wrote of the unusual appearance of a woman as a violinist: "She is a muse who strikes the lyre of Apollo, and to her extraordinary talent is added her personal grace" (Mercure de France Sept. 1768, p. 117f.). The development of the modern concave violin bow, which is associated with the name of François Xavier Tourte and which made a new virtuoso bowing technique possible, caused the disappearance of the old round bow and the old string culture of the Tartinian type which had characterised Lombardini Sirmen's violin playing. In the end, she died impoverished again in Venice. She also met the Milanese Bach, Johann Christian Bach, in London, but encounters with greats like her contemporaries Mozart or Haydn do not appear in their or her vita, perhaps one of the reasons why she has been forgotten by music history.

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