Univ.-Prof. Mag.art.
Isabel Gabbe
Isabel Gabbe has been Professor of Piano and Piano Didactics at Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2016 and has headed the Department of Music Education (Innsbruck campus) since 2018. A pianist and music educator of Franco-German heritage, she combines an international performing career with a longstanding commitment to music education, piano pedagogy and musicians' health. She is also a certified music physiologist specialising in musicians' health.
Gabbe studied with Hans Leygraf in Salzburg and Berlin and received further artistic inspiration from musicians including John Perry, György Sebők, Klaus Schilde, Peter Frankl, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Paul Badura-Skoda and Rainer Becker. She also participated in chamber music courses with Gerhard Schulz, David Finckel, Zara Nelsova, Eberhard Feltz, Wolfram Rieger and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Gabbe has won prizes at numerous national and international competitions, including the Bremen Piano Competition, the international duo competitions in Barcelona and Caltanissetta, and the German Music Council Competition. She has performed and given masterclasses throughout Europe, Brazil and the United States, appearing in concert halls including the Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin Konzerthaus, Cologne Philharmonie, Munich's Herkulessaal, Bremen's Glocke and the Teatro Guaíra in Curitiba.
Alongside her performing career, Gabbe has been deeply involved in music education. She has taught at music academies, music schools, general education schools and early years settings, and from 2009 to 2014 coordinated the education programme of the Ruhr Piano Festival Foundation. She continues to work with the festival, leading professional development workshops for nursery and primary school teachers that promote creative music-making with children.
From 2005 to 2017, Gabbe founded and directed the French chamber music festival Moments Musicaux, where she brought together established international artists and emerging young musicians while championing lesser-known repertoire. Since 2023, she has served as the festival's Honorary President.
Her artistic work is documented in numerous radio and television broadcasts and several CD recordings. She has also published on piano pedagogy in Üben & Musizieren (Schott) and the Innsbrucker Perspektiven zur Musikpädagogik series (Waxmann).