Filipino-American cellist Isabella Palacpac is a performer, recording artist, and teacher based in Connecticut and New York City. She teaches a growing number of private students in the Fairfield County area, and also provides lessons online to cellists throughout the country. She currently tours with the classical/pop crossover group TAKE3. She has also performed locally with organizations such as the Ridgefield Theater Barn, the Ridgefield Chorale, and the Brookfield Theater for the Arts.

Isabella received her Bachelor’s degree in 2020 from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. She started her cello studies at the age of six with Dolores Saenz and Dr. Alexander Russakovsky at The University of Southern Mississippi and began attending the Juilliard Pre-College program two years later, studying with Dr. Minhye Clara Kim and Andre Emelianoff. She graduated from Juilliard Pre-College and Wilton High School in 2015.

Previous local engagements include solo performances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Danbury Symphony Orchestra, American Chamber Orchestra, and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has attended music festivals such as the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program and the Orford Arts Academy, was recognized as a National YoungArts Winner, and was a member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA. As a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer, she has appeared in venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Bushnell Theater, and Lincoln Center. As TAKE3’s cellist, Isabella’s performances across America include highlights such as concerts with the Johnson City Symphony in Tennessee and with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado; a performance with a Sky Elements drone show in Sandusky, Ohio; and an appearance as the opening act for Wilson Philipps at The Lancaster Festival. She has performed recital programs for the Old Dutch Church Concert Series in Kingston, NY, the Young Artist Concert Series in Woodstock, NY, and was a guest speaker and performer at the Fairfield County Strings Festival. At Juilliard, Isabella performed at Juilliard ChamberFest, New Dances, and the Senior Dance Production. She has also performed internationally on stages in China, Canada, Switzerland, and Russia. 

As a recipient of the Gluck Community Engagement Fellowship at Juilliard, Isabella led concerts at various New York City hospitals and community centers. She is currently on the faculty at The Cello Camp in Westport, CT, having previously taught with the Harmony Program and Corona Youth Music Project in New York. In high school, she co-founded and directed “Roots of Music,” a summer program based in Wilton, Connecticut and Congers, New York to provide free music education to local children. She was previously an assistant director at Virtual Bedside Concerts, a program started by Harvard Medical School students during the Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate concerts between artists, patients, and healthcare workers. 

Isabella also enjoys arranging and performing pop and contemporary music, having collaborated with a variety of pop instrumentalists, singer-songwriters, and dancers. Her cello covers on YouTube have amassed nearly 750,000 views, and her arrangements have been performed by other musicians at weddings, recitals, music programs, and other events. When she’s away from the cello, she enjoys running, rock climbing, reading fantasy novels, and spoiling her pug, Arya.