Isabella Abbonizio Guitar Lessons

I started teaching in 2001, the year before graduating at the Conservatory of Bologna. My teacher, a student of Andres Segovia, wanted me to be her teaching assistant for her undergraduate students. It was an insightful and illuminating experience for me. I immediately felt in love with teaching and my passion increased during the years.

I love sharing my knowledge and passion for music with my students. In my career I worked with students of all ages, from 5 to 75y, and backgrounds, and everyone brought me into a different experience.

What I am proud of is that I was always able to infuse my passion in my students, following their music development for years. I would like to tell aspiring students that music is a really enchanting world and playing an instrument gives you the possibility to entering that magic door.

About my education:

Guitar Diploma (10 years) - Conservatory of Music 'G. B. Martini', Bologna - Italy

M. A. Musicology - University of Bologna

Ph.D. Musicology - University of Rome

1st Prize Pescara Musica 1993

Visiting Scholar New York University Center for European and Mediterranean Studies

BIO

Isabella Abbonizio is an Italian classical guitarist and musicologist currently based in New York City. Her passion for music manifested early in her life and brought her to pursue both instrumental and theorical studies. After studying at the G. B. Martini Music Conservatory of Bologna (Italy) she graduated cum laude in musicology, and got the Ph.D. at the Tor Vergata University of Rome. Currently she is a Visiting Scholar at New York University's Centre for European and Mediterranean Studies.

As a guitarist Isabella studied under the guidance of Griselda Ponce de Leòn and attended master classes with Roland Dyens, Frédéric Zigante, Piero Bonaguri, Eugenio Becherucci, Martha Masters and Joao Luiz from the Brazilian Guitar Duo. She performs both as soloist and in chamber ensembles. Isabella is a member of the Contemporanea Guitar Duo (I. Abbonizio/J. Olson) and a former member of the Brooklyn Guitar Quartet (with L. Frandsen, C. Cuestas, J. Miller). Her repertoire is focused on 20th and 21st century music and she premiered a number of works for guitar.

As a musicologist, she realized the first extensive analysis on the guitar works of Maurice Ohana (1913-1992), published in the journal Il Fronimo. Her current research interests focus on 20th century Italian and French music, colonial/postcolonial studies, Italian music and politics, musical exoticism, and music education. Her works are presented at international conferences, including International Society of Musicology IMS, Italian Society of Musicology SIdM, Bristol Conference on 20th century Music and Politics. She gives lectures in academic and cultural institutions, such as New York University and Guitar Foundation of America, and publishes in international scholarly journals.

Isabella is also a professional music and guitar teacher with more than ten years of teaching experience in public and private schools, in Italy and USA. Presently she is on the faculty of the Harlem School of the Arts. She is founder and president of the G. Ponce de León Music Society in Rome, developing music education projects in Italian public schools since 2010. A guitar advocate, she is the North American Correspondent for the Italian guitar magazine GuitArt, and co-founder and co-artistic director of the Lanciano International Guitar Seminar www.lancianoguitar.com.