Recent winner of the Woman to Follow in Culture 2021 Prize and Melómano de Oro, Dr. Isabel Dobarro has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Rachmaninoff Hall at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Sala Manuel de Falla, Ateneo de Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana, and Sala Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Bolzano, Italy, among others. She was a prizewinner at the American Protegé International Piano and Strings Competition (2nd Prize), Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition (3rd Prize), Ciutat de Berga International Competition (1st Prize) and the Cidade do Fundao Piano International Competition (1st Prize), as well as the recipient of the Jorge Bolet Distinguished Performer Award at the Stony Brook International Piano Festival.
Her activism for women composers’ music has led her to create with mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna the initiative Women in Music, which organizes cultural exchanges through the music of women composers. In these concerts, Tonna and Dobarro collaborated with the NY Philharmonic Very Young Composers Program, New York Women Composers, American Space, International Institute, Asociación de Mujeresen la Música and the Cultural Program of the Portugal Embassy in Spain. She has also performed the Clara Schumann Piano Concerto with the OSSB orchestra at the prestigious Palau de la Música Catalana, she will premiere the Louise-HeritteViardot Quartets in Spain, and has presented works by women composers in numerous solo recitals. For her work in the promotion of women composers, she has been invited to speak and play at the prestigious Women Now conference, along with Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Kennedy, and she has given numerous lectures on the topic at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, III Encuentro María de Pablos, among others.
Her interest for contemporary music has led her to premiere works by Eduardo Soutullo, Octavio Vázquez, Pamela Sklar, Sonia Megías, Michael Boyman, Julia Dopico, Lars Graugard, Ana Isabel Vázquez Silva, Carme Rodríguez, María Camahort, Silvia Llanas Rich, among others. She is a frequent performer of works both for solo and ensemble of George Crumb, Juan Antonio Simarro, Consuelo Díez, Mercedes Zavala, Alexa Babakhanian, Miguel Bustamante, Benet Casablancas, Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo, Antón García Abril, Carmelo Bernaola, Debra Kaye, Marga Richter, Mary-Ann Joyce, among others.
Isabel has taught masterclasses at the Festival de Ópera de Morelia, Curso de Perfeccionamiento Pianístico de Veracruz, Conservatorio Superior de Música de A Coruña, Manuel Peleteiro Conservatory and New York University’s Undergraduate Collegium. She has also given lectures and speeches at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, United Nations General Assembly, Harvard University, ECOSOC Youth Forum, European Parliament within the European Arts Forum, I Jornadas Sostenibilidad e InstitucionesCulturales, University of Michigan,IE University in Madrid, University of Vechta, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, and Casina Pio IV at the Vatican. In 2016, she organized the Festival Granados: Composer, Pedagogue, and Virtuoso at New York University, a series of lectures and concerts about Enrique Granados in which she premiered a newly reconstructed version for piano quintet of Granados’ Concierto Patético by composer Sergi Casanelles. She has published for Harvard University-Observatorio Instituto Cervantes, IIASA Institute in Vienna, or Global Square Magazine, among other publications.
Her musical studies include degrees from New York University (where she started teaching at age 19 and earned a Ph.D.), Manhattan School of Music, and Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid.