Isabella Mendes is a singer-songwriter, pianist, composer and educator whose work is rooted in Brazilian jazz and bossa nova.  Born in São Paulo, Brazil,  she began her training as a classical pianist at age six.  She also composed her own music and participated in various competitions, concerts and master classes.  At age of fifteen she moved to the United States and began jazz and vocal studies while attending the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT.

Isabella continues to write and compose music.  Her album “Blame Destiny” was released in 2017.   She has developed her own unique sound informed not only by her classical training but also her jazz, bossa nova, Brazilian, and pop influences.  She performs regularly throughout CT.  Her personal and professional goals include collaborating and connecting with a diverse group of performers and musicians, advocating for women in the arts, and bringing people together through their mutual love of creating and sharing music.

REVIEWS:

[Isabella’s] expressive, pristine vocals, which can mix a sense of vulnerability with resilience and joy, have become part of her effervescent signature sound in appearances in Connecticut clubs and festivals, along, of course, with her well-honed jazz piano playing, rooted in the knowledge and mastery she derived from her classical studies.”
~ Owen McNally, WNPR Jazz Corridor, August 19, 2015

“Whether it was standing up and singing or sitting at the piano, Isabella Mendes played a great mix of music in her songs which were as told through stories lyrically as much as instrumentally.”
~ Raised By Gypsies

“…when you can span three generations in that way you know there is something special going on and the live performance only enhances that essence.”
~ Raised By Gypsies