Donald Isler

category: Music,

Contact & Info

  • islerd@verizon.net

Artist Statement

Phone: (914) 591-6298

Email: kasprec2@verizon.net

Websites: www.donaldisler.com, www.westchesterpianolessons.com, www.kasprecords.com

Pianist Donald Isler is the founder of KASP Records (www.kasprecords.com), which has produced recordings of his performances of music by Schnabel and Spohr, as well as music of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann, music of the American composer, Louis Pelosi, and performances by great pianists of the past.

The New York Times has written of him “His ability to keep momentum alive through long movements makes him a most satisfying sonata player” and “Listening to Donald Isler in Schubert’s rarely-heard B Major Sonata, one thinks ‘What a marvelous piece!’” The Classical Music Guide wrote “Donald Isler brings forward the traditions of great piano playing.”

A graduate of New York’s High School of Music and Art, he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, and his teachers included Bruce Hungerford, Constance Keene, Lilian Kallir, Eleanor Hancock, Zenon Fishbein  and Sina Berlinski.

Donald Isler teaches at the Hackley School Music Institute, and has served on the faculties of the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center, and many other schools. He has been an adjudicator for the Pre-College Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School, and a member of the Bruce Hungerford Award committee at the Young Concert Artists Competition.

He has written many reviews for the Classical Music Guide, and regularly writes articles about teaching and music on his Facebook page, entitled Isler’s Insights.


Educational Background

Donald Isler adjusts his approach to the needs of each student, and works to encourage his/her strengths, and overcome any difficulties. He works to increase the student's appreciation of the great art of music by helping the student  produce a beautiful tone, improve his/her technique (always being flexible to adjust for the individual's hand/physical situation), and play in the appropriate style for the particular music being studied.

He is on the Piano Faculty of the Summit Music Festival, and teaches at the Hackley School Music Institute, and privately.

He has previously served on the faculties of the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center, the Brooklyn Music School, the Bennett Conservatory, the Bronx House Music School, and the Staten Island Jewish Community Center Institute.

He is a long-time Board Member of the Associated Music Teachers League.

Donald Isler received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano from Manhattan School of Music.

He also took pedagogy courses at the Diller-Quaile School.

And he benefitted from many, many years of study with outstanding pianists including Bruce Hungerford, Constance Keene, Artur Balsam, Robert Goldsand and Lilian Kallir as well as acclaimed pianist/teachers such as Zenon Fishbein, Eleanor Hancock, and Sina Berlinski.