Isabelle O'Connell

Described by the New York Times as ‘one of the finest, busiest pianists active in New York’s contemporary-classical scene’ Franco-Irish pianist Isabelle O’Connell’s international career as soloist and chamber musician has taken her around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Art Institute, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Die Stadthalle Wuppertal, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and the National Concert Hall, Ireland.

Isabelle has a reputation for being a dynamic interpreter and energetic advocate of 20th and 21st century composers, regularly commissioning and premiering new works. She has worked with some of the leading composers of our time including John Adams, Meredith Monk, John Luther Adams, Eve Beglarian, Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Gordon, Georg Friedrich Haas, Missy Mazzoli, Joan Tower, Kevin Volans and Julia Wolfe. Her debut solo album RESERVOIR featured solo piano music by nine contemporary Irish composers and was released to critical acclaim in 2010 with the New Yorker calling her ‘the young Irish piano phenom’.

As concerto soloist Isabelle has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductors William Eddins, Gerhard Markson and Gavin Maloney. Her recording of Kevin Volans’ Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Winds with the NSO was released on the Lyric fm label in 2014. She has also performed as soloist with the RTE Concert Orchestra, and in 2025 gave the New York premiere of Viet Cuong’s piano concerto Stargazer with the Queer Urban Orchestra conducted by David Bloom.

Isabelle is a member and co-founder of Grand Band, New York’s new music piano sextet dubbed ‘the Traveling Wilburys of the city’s new-music piano scene’ by the New York Times. They debuted at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York in 2012 and have since performed around the United States and U.K., at the Gilmore Piano Festival, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Peak Performances Series Montclair, the Rite of Summer Music Festival, Liquid Music Festival, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Sheffield University and Cornerstone Festival, Liverpool. In 2018 Grand Band was the recipient of a Chamber Music America grant and commissioned a new work by Missy Mazzoli. Their concerts on the PEAK series were recorded and broadcast on WNET ALL ARTS TV.

As chamber musician, Isabelle has performed with John Adams at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, with Meredith Monk at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival and with the New Zealand String Quartet at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. She is currently pianist with Irish ensemble Evlana, and has played with Alarm Will Sound, Contemporaneous, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New Zealand and ConTempo String Quartets. She also joined the Crash ensemble on tours of Australia and the United States, performing at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Conservatoire, Kennedy Center, Princeton University, Peak Performances Montclair, Virginia Tech, Le Poisson Rouge New York, as well as at the Galway International Arts Festival, Reich Effect Festival and Sounds of a Safe Harbor Festival in Cork, and the NCH and IMMA in Dublin, Ireland.

Isabelle enjoys cross-collaborations across a variety musical genres and art forms, playing with Grammy award-winning vocalist Susan McKeown on her 2010 album Singing in the Dark and with sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird. She has also worked with dancer/choreographers Maureen Fleming, Jody Oberfelder and Megan Williams Dance Projects.

Isabelle has recorded for the Diatribe, Innova, Métier, NMC, Pyroclastic and Lyric fm labels. She has appeared on television and radio around the world, with performances and interviews broadcast on WNYC, WQXR, WFMT Chicago, CNN, WNET ALL ARTS TV, BBC3, RTE, TV3 and Lyric FM radio. She was Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Isabelle has been the recipient of numerous awards including a 2025 Fulbright Alumni Projects Award, Clifford-Levy grant, John F. Kennedy scholarship, and various awards from Culture Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland. She currently serves on the piano faculty as Artist-in-Residence at Bard College and Conservatory of Music, New York.