Isabelle David
She grew up in the Eastern Townships of Québec. Her mom is a flutist and pianist and taught piano at home. When she wasn’t practicing, she turned on the stereo and flooded the house with classical, jazz and Québécois chanson. Her dad is a conductor and drove Isabelle to lessons in his red sports car, symphonies blasting from the radio. She played violin, recorder and sang in a choir, but settled on the piano - an instrument that allowed her to play the melody and the harmony all at the same time. She found the combination of voices hypnotic.

She became a classical music geek early, with solo piano works by Bach on her Christmas wish list at age 7. She began “official” lessons at 8 and often had to be dragged away from the piano and sent out to play.

After undergraduate studies in Montreal and graduate studies in Boston, Isabelle received her doctorate in 2021. Her focus was the piano literature of the brilliant Quebec composer and performer Auguste Descarries, who also taught Isabelle’s grandmother, Louise Lussier. “Mamie” told Isabelle stories of going to the Maître’s home on Saturday afternoon for lessons that often went on for hours, attending evening musical soirees and reveling in the elegant cultural milieu of Montreal in the 1950s.

With her supervisor Jean Saulnier, Isabelle devoted four years to editing Descarries’ manuscripts, now part of the Université de Montréal archives. She’s also recorded a solo album devoted to the works of Auguste Descarries, soon to be released on the Leaf Music label.

She’s performed and toured extensively with the Canadian violinist Yolanda Bruno. In 2019 they released “The Wild Swans”, an album featuring the music of 11 outstanding women composers. She collaborates with soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan as part of the Equilibrium Young Artists program. She’s played all over North America and Europe, as a soloist and chamber musician. And her resume lists dozens of prizes, including the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award.

Isabelle is passionately concerned about the state of our environment and works toward greater equity in the world of classical music. She constantly asks what she can “bring to the table that will be meaningful, beyond the music itself? Who are the voices that have been left?”

She’s also devoted to music by living composers.

“I love that special moment when I receive a fresh score, sit at the piano and read it for the first time,” she says. “You don’t have the weight of tradition on your shoulders. It is freeing to discover a new canvas! Firing your imagination and unveiling the story and emotions the composer wanted to tell is incomparable.”

Offstage, she’s obsessed with crosswords, loves figure skating and relaxes by cooking.

“There is nothing that makes me feel like music,” she says. “It is beauty, exhilaration, comfort, sorrow; it can tell the human experience in so many subtle shades. Success for me is knowing that, through the music I’ve played, someone has been moved, it’s nourished their soul.”