Biography

Caterina Isaia was born in Italy in October 2002 and started playing cello with Prof. Marianne Chen in 2012. From 2015 she studied with cellist Monika Leskovar. Since September 2017 she was admitted as a scholar at the international school for special talents "Yehudi Menuhin School" in London under the guidance of Bartholomew LaFollette and Matthijs Broesma. 

She participated in masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz, Jerome Pernoo, Ivan Monighetti,Giovanni Sollima, Giovanni Gnocchi, Mario Brunello, Robert Levin, Leonard Elshenbroich, David Waterman and Colin Carr. She also receives a scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and participates in the intensive music weeks held there.

Between 2013 to 2015, under the guidance of Prof. Marianne Chen, Caterina won over twenty 1st prizes in national and international competitions in different cities. Her debut took place at the age of twelve as part of the “Secco-Suardo Festival” in Bergamo (Italy). At the age of thirteen she won the 1st prize at the prestigious “Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition” in Croatia, where she was also awarded as special prize an invitation to perform a solo concert with the “Zagreb Chamber Orchestra”. In 2020 she received the 1st prize at the “14th International Competition Vychytil” (Prague) and a special prize offered by the atelier Jan Spidlen. In January 2021 she has been awarded the 1st prize at the “Rudolf Barshai International Strings Competition” (Saint Petersburg, Russia). 

Caterina has performed at prestigious concert seasons in various Italian cities: Verona, Milan, Bergamo, Palermo, Syracuse, Messina, Rovereto, Venice, Forlì, Bologna, Mantova, Alessandria, Como and Trento. In 2016 she recorded for the Italian National Television RAI2 and in October she inaugurated the “Alfredo Piatti” international cello festival with a solo recital. 2018 the artistic direction of Yehudi Menuhin School chose her for a tour of nine concerts where she played in Edinburgh, Blair Atholl Castle, New Lanark, Eyemouth Berwick, Cambridge University and Champs Hill. She is the cello section leader of the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra, which toured in Spain in 2018 in Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Pau Casals Auditorium. In 2019 Caterina was selected for the “Mit Musik - Miteinander” project of the Kronberg Academy (Germany) as well as being selected by Ivan Monighetti to participate in the Gstaad Menuhin Academy. She also performed Schumann Cello Concerto with Marlborough Concert Orchestra in London in the same year. 2020 she has been invited to perform with the Nicola Benedetti Foundation as a part of the Benedetti sessions held in Southbank Centre, London, and she performed Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor at Villa Vercelli Cavriani (Verona) with the Talent Summer Orchestra and Maestro Sergio Baietta. In July 2020 she has been invited by the acclaimed pianist Beatrice Rana at her festival “Classiche forme 2020” with a cello ensemble led by Giovanni Sollima. 

As well as playing solo, Caterina is also working with her quartet which performed works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Debussy as well as piano quintets by Dvorak and Schumann during the annual Yehudi Menuhin Summer Festival. 

Since 2019 Caterina is supported by the Italian foundation “Associazione Musica Con Le Ali”.