About
Born in 1955 in Linz, Austria, Isabella studied classical guitar at the Bruckner Conservatory Linz and Mozarteum Salzburg, Jazz singing with Inès Reiger and Anna Lauvernac at Prayner Conservatory Vienna, and Historical Lute Instruments with Luciano Contini (Chitarrone, Renaissance Lute) at Konservatorium Wien, Private University.
During her time in Salzburg in the 70ies, she became a member of the ensemble Bärengässlin together with Michael Korth, Christine Simon and Johannes Heimrath, and worked with them from 1977 – 1986, touring Europe and being part of eight of their record productions. Bären Gässlin also collaborated with artists such as H.C. Artman.
In 1997, she founded the Medieval Noise Band as her own project, merging Jazz and Medieval music. Changing members were Antonis Vounelakos, Peter Rosmanith, Levent Tarhan, Walter Fend and Karl Sayer. With this band, she released two records and performed on stages such as Posthof Linz.
The duo gri:, founded with her daughter Katharina Ernst, was mostly active between 2010 and 2012. It is an experiment of bringing together lute and drums in an extended singer-songwriter context. They self-released an EP with original compositions.
Throughout her career she collaborated with various artists in the context of Jazz and free improvised music, such as the Vienna Improvisors Orchestra, Karl Sayer, Walter Fend, Bumi Fian, …