Isabel Ettenauer is an emerging pianist from Austria. Born in 1972 in St. Poelten, Lower Austria she was educated at the Music Academy in Vienna (graduating with distinction in 1994), in Switzerland with Emmy Henz-Diemand (earning her concert diploma 1997) and in London with Peter Feuchtwanger (privately) and Philip Mead at the Contemporary Piano Department of the London College of Music and Media. She also received scholarships to attend Masterclasses with Joanna MacGregor and Rolf Hind at the Dartington Internationl Summer School, England in 1999 and 2000. 1997 Isabel was awarded the "Youngster of Arts"-prize by the mayor of her home town St. Poelten.
In recent years Isabel has performed frequently as a soloist in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK and USA. While she plays a varied repertoire from the 18th and 19th centuries, her primary interst is contemporary music and music from the 20th century. She works closely with many living composers. More and more composers have written or are writing works especially for her, including Richard Emsley, Erik-Michael Karlsson, Lydia Martin, Stephen Montague, HyeKyung Lee and Mia Zabelka.
Isabel likes to develop concert programmes with special themes. For example, in 1999 she played a recital "The Ghost of Chopin", containing Chopin-related works of seven twentieth century composers. She is also very intersted in all sorts of experimental piano techniques as playing inside the piano, prepared piano, playing with electronics etc. She has a special love for American music as by John Cage, Henry Cowell, Henry Brant, Stephen Montague, George Crumb, John Adams and many others.
One of her newest projects is called "Toy Piano on Tour". Based on John Cage's "Suite for Toy Piano" and repertoire pianist Margaret Leng Tan commissioned in the 90s of the 20th Century, Isabel wants to go further and commissioned several new works for this wonderful instrument.