ISABELLA
RAHME
ISABELLA RAHME IS AN EMERGING COMPOSER, HARPIST AND VOCALIST LIVING AND MAKING MUSIC ON GADIGAL LAND (SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA). her practice as a musician includes writing for choirs and ensembles, creating sound art and installations, and improvising on her electroacoustic harp.
recent ensembles she has worked with include ensemble offspring (Hatched academy 2023), trio immersio (iceberg institute 2023), and jack quartet (jack studio 2021). her electroacoustic works have been broadcast as part of radio and sound art festival radiophrenia (2020 & 2022), and her music and sound design for animation short “after hours” was shown at the annecy film festival (2021).
she was commissioned to create her first interactive installation in 2022 for backstage music’s “clarity engine”, and is currently working on a new installation for the music box project’s festival “cut paste play” in march of 2024.
Isabella Graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2022 with a bachelor of music (composition), where she studied under many esteemed australian composers including gerard brophy, liza lim, damian barbeler, & daniel rojas. She also developed her electroacoustic composition practice by studying under daniel blinkhorn and alexis weaver.
as a harpist isabella has performed chamber music, in orchestras (the syo), as a pit musician (muse), and as a soloist for private functions (weddings & corporate events). she has also played in contemporary artists’ bands (anso, yasmina sadiki) with her electroacoustic harp. she also explores ways of extending the harp’s sound with electronics, and many of her electroacoustic works and in 2021 she performed an improvised livestream experiment on electroacoustic harp with live-processing for hibernation festival of the low-fi.
as a vocALIST (SOPRANO VOICE), iSABELLA HAS PERFORMED MUSIC ACROSS MANY GENRES & STYLES, AND IS ESPECIALLY EXPERIENCED PERFORMING AS A CHORISTER. sHE IS A MEMBER OF SPC’S VOX, AND PERFORMS REGULARLY IN THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE WITH THE SSO. THROUGH VOX SHE HAS WORKED WITH MANY DISTINGUISHED MUSICIANS AND CONDUCTORS INCLUDING SIMONE YOUNG, SIR SIMON RATTLE, ERIC WHITACRE, STEPHEN LAYTON, ETC. she has toured as a chorister in australia, new zealand, and italy (where she sang in the vatican). in 2023 she WAS the soprano soloIST in vox’s performance of david lang’s the little match girl, AND PERFORMED IN THE OPERA CHORUS FOR CONCORDIA ENSEMBLE’S PRODUCTION OF DIDO AND AENEAS.
Isabella is also experienced as a music theory and composition tutor. She has experience tutoring students privately and as a facilitator of educational workshops (the house that dan built, curiousworks). Isabella ALSO HAS EXPERIENCE AS A CONDUCTOR OF CHOIRS AND ENSEMBLES, INCLUDING ORGANISING, RUNNING REHEARSALS, AND PROMOTING PRODUCTIONS.
“Isabella Rahme’s Return took the audience on a journey to an island in the Greek archipelago…[and] created an evocative atmosphere reminiscent of ancient Greek tragedies…”
— Classikon
PHOTO BY JARED UNDERWOOD
Isabella Rahme 