Based in Melbourne/Naarm, Isabel is a violinist/violist, creative and educator. She has enjoyed a vibrant freelance career for over 15 years, performing and educating with many artists and musicians from around the world. Her practice as a musician and performer is focussed on ways of exploring how music can connect to audiences in new, accessible environments and how to deepen the connection between the performer and listener through practices of internal awareness and meditation.
In her hometown of Melbourne, Isabel completed her Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts as a student of Miwako Abe, where she was the recipient of the Kate Flowers Memorial Award and the Athenaeum Soloist Award. She then went on to do a further three years of advanced study at the Australian National Academy of Music as a student of William Hennessy. During this time Isabel performed with various artists such as the Brodsky String Quartet, Anthony Marwood, Pekka Kuuisisto, and received master-classes with Midori. She also performed in various festivals including the Huntington Estate Festival, the Melbourne and Perth International Arts Festivals, the Sydney Bienalle and played in ensemble tours of China, Russia and Singapore.
In the time of her freelance career Isabel has spent time living in Perth, London and Melbourne. During this time, Isabel has performed all styles of music with various ensembles around Australia and the world. Highlights have been, working with the Opera Australia Regional Touring Orchestra as a part of their six-week annual tour around Australia, the Perth Symphony Orchestra, the national Australian tour of Hugh Jackman’s “Broadway to Oz” and performing in the Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Sweden.
More recently she was a Finalist in the APRA Art Music Awards for Performance of the Year with the national tour of the show “While You Sleep” which also received a 5 star review from Limelight Magazine.
After completing an artist’s residency in collaboration with ArtsIceland Westfjörds, Isabel began her performance project Modulate Music. Primarily focussed on exploring internal states of body and mind through sound and performance, the music is an ambient wash of deeply meditative electronic violin and viola soundscapes. In 2018 she release the Modulate Mind Music Podcast which combines meditation practices with all new music. In 2020 she released her first album Landscapes and continues to perform regularly across Melbourne, often collaborating with yoga, movement and meditation.
This year she has performed solo violin for the Melbourne productions of “Moulin Rouge!”, “Chicago” and “Beauty and the Beast”.