Isabella Isza Wu’s work focuses on exploring the ways in which music can create transformative experiences for audiences, community engagement, and education. She is passionate about understanding how audiences relate to music and creating immersive experiences through the pipe organ.

Isza (pronounced EYEsa) currently serves as an Assistant Director and Organist at St. Paul’s Parish, K St, in Washington, DC. Previous to her appointment in DC, Isza served as Grand Court Assistant Organist at Macy’s Wanamaker Organ, the largest fully functioning organ in the world; and as the Organ Scholar at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church under Peter Richard Conte, and St. Mark’s, Locust St, in Philadelphia, respectively.

Isza maintains a concert career throughout the US, with a particular emphasis on orchestral transcriptions for large symphonic organs of the east coast. She has performed at Longwood Gardens, Boardwalk Hall, Ocean Grove Auditorium, Overture Hall, St. Luke's Episcopal Church (IL), Alice Millar Chapel (IL), St. Philip’s Cathedral (Atlanta), Central Synogogue (NYC), Christ Church (Philadelphia), and Ursinus College, among others. She has also been a featured performer at the Brevard Music Festival, Rapid City Chamber Music Society, and 2023 AGO Midwest Regional Convention, and was recently named to the OHS E. Power Biggs Scholar Class of 2024. 

Aside from performing, Isza is most excited by musical projects which heighten the organ in a creative manner, or draw upon community experiences. Her current projects involve organ transcriptions, and collaborations with composer Maya Miro Johnson. She has also programmed interactive organ concerts for public and private events involving poetry, improvisation, and movement, and during pandemic, initiated a multi-composer piano composition project involving 18 musicians.

Growing up in Madison, WI, Isza began piano lessons at age 5, and made her orchestral debut at age 11 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. She added violin, voice, and percussion studies throughout her childhood, and played in youth orchestra and her high school band and choir program. She credits these experiences for an enriching musical background in a variety of genres and musical instruments.

Isza began studying organ at age 19 with Margaret Kemper in the Chicago area while pursuing her dual degrees at Northwestern University in Piano Performance and Communication Studies, respectively. During her time at Northwestern, Isza studied piano with José Ramón Méndez and Yasuko Oura; and conducting with Donald Nally and Mallory Thompson. She also sang with the Alice Millar Chapel Choir, performing major works including Handel's Laudate Pueri Dominum (soloist), Puccini's Messa di gloria, and Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra, alongside the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and on WFMT.

She continued her Master’s degree in Organ Performance at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison, Leon Schelhase, Jeffrey Brillhart, and Mary Javian. Isza’s continuing studies in repertoire, improvisation, and historical practice have taken her to programs in Paris, Spain, and Haarlem.

Although performing remains her primary focus, Isza has over ten years of experience as a teacher and community artist, and continues to maintain a private piano studio. As a non-profit organizer, she has also held positions in music education & engagement at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, The People's Music School (Chicago), Northwestern Academy of Music and Special Education, and the Penn Memory Center (University of Pennsylvania).