Isabel Trautwein

Violin
Trevor and Jennie Jones Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra

Isabel Trautwein has been a member of the first violin section of The Cleveland Orchestra since September 2002.  Previously she was a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony in Miami, the Houston Symphony, and the Pacifica String Quartet.
 
Ms. Trautwein has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.  As a student, she toured extensively throughout Europe, Africa, and India with Claudio Abbado’s European Youth Orchestra and performed chamber music at the Salzburger Festspiele and at the Aspen Festival in Colorado.  For two summers she served as concertmaster of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.
 
Upon receiving an undergraduate degree from the Musikhochschule Lübeck, Ms. Trautwein continued her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Donald Weilerstein. Passionate about bringing Classical music to new audiences, Ms. Trautwein started a series of chamber concerts, the Heights Arts House Concerts, which presents chamber music in beautiful and unique venues around Cleveland.
 
In 2006, Ms. Trautwein started an intergenerational orchestra for players of all ages called TACO – The Awesome Children’s Orchestra, which performs in community settings around town, most recently in January 2012 onstage at Severance Hall with over 70 musicians.

In 2010, Ms. Trautwein was selected for a year-long fellowship program in Boston and Venezuela to study the implementation of El Sistema programs in the U.S.  El Sistema is an intensive youth orchestra program that seeks to affect positive change in at-risk inner-city youth, using daily orchestral training as a tool for community building and social action. In September 2011, Ms. Trautwein launched El Sistema@Rainey, a string program for 30 children ages 6-10 at Rainey Institute in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.
 
Isabel Trautwein resides in Cleveland Heights with her deaf dog, Yoffi.


Revised:  February 2012