Isabelle O’Connell

Cocteau - Solo Piano Album Recording

Isabelle O’Connell, a member of the Piano Faculty, has been awarded The Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant to fund the editing, mixing, and mastering stages of her solo piano album Cocteau. The album features piano miniatures inspired by the French artist Jean Cocteau, with works by composers such as Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, and Francis Poulenc, along with a recent commission by Rhona Clarke. The album will be released by the Divine Art label once completed. 

This project grew out of Isabelle’s research into composers who collaborated with Cocteau, many of whom have written short piano works that are not widely known. By recording these pieces, Isabelle aims to share these hidden gems with a broader audience, including Diller-Quaile’s piano students. The album will introduce students to important yet underperformed works, particularly by the neglected female composer Germaine Tailleferre.