Gina Izzo
About
NY-based flutist Gina Izzo, "Rattles speakers and expectations with stop-time razzle, vocal (flute-talk) and electronic (phaser) effects" (NYC Jazz Record)." Far from conventional, Izzo integrates improvisation and analog FX, with flute at the center.
Izzo has been presented at Duke Performances with Steve Coleman and Natal Eclipse, Lincoln Center Out of Doors with Revive Music and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Time Square Arts as part of Charles Gaines "The American Manifest," and at The Jazz Standard as part of Ambrose Akinmusire's 'The Imagined Savior is Far Easier To Paint.'
She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The Stone, Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, the Jazz Standard, National Sawdust, and the Bang on a Can Festival, among others. Recent collaborations include performances and recordings with artists Gabriel Garzón-Montano on the 2020 release "Agüita," Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Doe Paoro, and an episode "SLAPP Suits" with John Oliver on HBO.
Izzo's most recent project featuring original music, ladyybirdd, was described as "an absolute masterpiece in experimentation"(XuneMag). The debut track into what is wanted, released in 2021 and encompassed "an unbridled sense of adventure, razor-sharp technique, and dynamic intensity" (Honk Magazine), and featured by I Care If You Listen.
In 2018, Izzo co-founded bespoken with Eunbi Kim, a mentorship organization for women in music, and has served over 75+ artists from around the world through their fellowship program. In 2010 she co-founded RighteousGIRLS, with pianist Erika Dohi, whose album gathering blue received 4.5 stars in Downbeat Magazine.
Izzo can be heard on Jagjaguwar, Nation Sawdust Tracks, Panoramic Records, and New Focus Recordings.
Programming & Presenting
For 10+ years, Izzo has worked in the non-profit arts sector, focusing on strategic organizational development, programming, and audience building. She has worked with National arts organizations and institutions including Carnegie Hall, The College of Performing Arts at The New School, Chamber Music America, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Welltone New Music "Cutting Edge Concerts" at Symphony Space, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
Currently, Izzo is Manager of Learning and Engagement programs at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. Each season, the wide-ranging education and social impact programs of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute connect hundreds of thousands of young people, families, educators, students, aspiring artists, administrators, and New Yorkers of all ages.
As Manager of Concerts at The New School, Izzo presented hundreds of events throughout the season and with institutional partners such as the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, the Philip Glass Institute, the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, The Festival of New Trumpet, Orpheus Summer Institute, and the Imani Winds Festival. Along with artist and faculty member Sarah Elizabeth Charles, the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, and NYC Winter Jazz Festival, Izzo supports the "Jazz and Gender Series" and "This is a Movement," an initiative cultivating an equitable and liberated music industry for people of all gender identities, race, class and ethnic backgrounds through non-hierarchical, Black Feminist methodologies.
Previously as Manager of Public Programs at Chamber Music America, Izzo programmed and presented artists including Billy Childs, Etienne Charles, Jane Ira Bloom, Samora Pinderhughes, Jen Shyu, Braxton Cook, Caroline Shaw, Kendrick Scott, SYBARITE5, Andy Akiho, among others, at for their free public concert series at venues including National Sawdust, Harlem Stage, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and the annual Bryant Park INTERSECT festival.
Izzo's professional development and entrepreneurship work extends through leading workshops as a guest speaker and serving on panels at institutions such as The College of Performing Arts at the New School, New York University, Berklee College of Music, the Colburn School, Boise State University, Wichita State University, and the Manhattan School of Music, among others. As an arts education advocate, she has been on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Summer program, an adjunct teaching artist at New York University. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Willie Mae Rock Camp, ambassador/engagement council at The Interlochen Center for the Arts, and adjunct faculty at the New School.
