bio
Italian saxophonist, composer, producer, researcher, Isabella Fabbri is a multifaceted artist within the classical, contemporary and electronic music scenes. She performs as a soloist, in symphonic orchestras and she is co-founder of several artistic projects which combine different music genres and art forms.
Isabella has performed in some of the most prestigious theaters and concert halls including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Flagey in Bruxelles, Cité de la Musique et de la Danse in Strasbourg, as well as in international music festivals counting Venice Biennale, Milano Musica Festival, George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Música Nova Festival in São Paulo.
Winner of national and international competitions, she collaborated with Filarmonica del Teatro alla Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica “La Verdi” di Milano, Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, European Contemporary Orchestra, playing with notorious conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Peter Eötvös, Wayne Marshall, Antonio Pappano and collaborating with international composers like Ivan Fedele and Michael Nyman. She premiered over 20 new compositions.
Her site-specific performance Sounds at an Exhibition was presented in 2015 at the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art during the 17th World Saxophone Congress.The project won the Movin’up Prize supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture and it has been on tour in museums all over the world ever since (MART in Rovereto, CENART in Mexico City, etc.).
She is part of several artistic projects: Senza (sax + piano + video installation), Elise Hall Saxophone Quartet (sax quartet), Gershwin Quintet (sax quartet + piano), Bateau-Lavoir Collective (mixed ensemble), Mirroring (saxophone + dance), DEI (saxophone/voice + keyboards/electronics).
She recorded for the labels DECCA, Da Vinci Publishing and Digressione Music. In 2018 she founded her label Good Waves Music and, in 2021, her recording studio Ca' Nova artistic house. She recently produced her first solo album Rainbow with music for saxophone, voice and electronics.
She is a D'Addario, BG France and Yanagisawa artist. She represents the brand D’Addario Woodwinds in Italy and Europe, during congresses, competitions and events dedicated to saxophone and clarinet.
Isabella started to play saxophone under the direction of Marco Gerboni at the Conservatory of Ferrara, her hometown, where she got a bachelor’s degree in classical saxophone and a master’s degree in chamber music, cum laude. She received her master’s degree in saxophone, cum laude, from the Conservatory of Milan, specializing in contemporary music with Mario Marzi. She continued her studies with Philippe Geiss incorporating musical improvisation and electronic music production at the Conservatory of Strasbourg, where she obtained her specialization diploma. In addition to this, she attended to several masterclasses with international teachers, such as Claude Delangle, Vincent David, Jean-Denis Michat, Jean-Marie Londeix. She graduated cum laude in musicology at the University of Pavia whilst also specializing in music cognition (psychology, pedagogy and neuroscience of music) at the Teatro alla Scala Academy in Milan. She is now pursuing a PhD in arts at the University of Lisbon, focused on her artistic project “Sounds at an Exhibition”.