ABOUT

Since her Carnegie Hall debut recital in 2002, pianist Isabelle O'Connell has developed an international career as soloist and chamber musician that has taken her around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, to venues such as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Art Institute, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and the National Concert Hall, Ireland. Festival appearances include the Belfast Festival, New Music Dublin, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Liquid Music, Time:Spans and Vale of Glamorgan festivals.

Isabelle is co-founder of Grand Band, a piano sextet described by the New York Times as: "six of the finest, busiest pianists active in New York's contemporary-classical scene”. She is a core member of Evlana ensemble and has also performed with Crash ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Contemporaneous, Da Capo Chamber Players, Friends of MATA ensemble, the ConTempo and New Zealand String Quartets. Isabelle has performed as concerto soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and RTE Concert Orchestra.

Composers she has worked with include John Adams, John Luther Adams, Morton Subotnick, Meredith Monk, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Missy Mazzoli, Kevin Volans, Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, Bunita Marcus, amongst many others.

Isabelle has recorded for the Diatribe, Innova, NMC and Lyric fm labels. Her debut solo album RESERVOIR released in 2010 featured solo piano music by nine contemporary Irish composers and for this The New Yorker hailed her as "the young Irish piano phenom".

Isabelle is currently on the piano faculty as Artist-in-Residence at Bard College and Conservatory of Music in New York. A Fulbright scholar, she holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. READ FULL BIO HERE