Isabella Dawis

Isabella Dawis, 17, is delighted to return to the Minnesota Opera after appearing in the 2005 production of Carmen. As a vocal soloist, she has performed at the Fitzgerald Theatre and with the Minneapolis Pops orchestra. Recently, she advanced to the national round of the Classical Singer high school competition.She is an experienced musical theater performer, having appeared at many local venues including the Guthrie Theater, Youth Performance Company and Stages Theater. In 2004 and 2005, the Minneapolis StarTribune named her an Outstanding Youth Performer of the Year in Twin Cities Theater for her title role performances in Annie at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and The Walleye Kid at Mu Performing Arts. As Kelsi Neilson in Disney’s High School Musical at the Children’s Theatre Company, Isabella accompanied the cast on piano live onstage.

As a pianist, Isabella has earned top awards from the Minnesota Orchestra Young People’s Symphony Concert Association (YPSCA), the LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra Rising Star Concerto Competition, and MacPhail Center for Music’s Concerto/Aria Competition, among others. She recently performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Dakota Valley Symphony and the Ravel Piano Concerto with the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra. She has been a selected participant at the e-Piano Junior Festival for the past two years. Isabella is also a collaborative pianist and has worked with Theater Latté Da and the Children’s Theatre Company. She studies piano with Prof. Alexander Braginsky.

Isabella attends the University of Minnesota full-time as a Post-Secondary Enrollment Options high school student. This fall, she was named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist. She also serves as Principal Intern at Prelude, a teen-singer actor performance lab at MacPhail. Coincidentally, Isabella’s voice teacher, Manon Gimlett, also performed a “pants role” in the original production of Casanova’s Homecoming. Isabella enjoys making music with her younger sister Francesca, a violinist and singer/actor.