Our Team

Isabel Ong is a violinist and educator based in Buffalo, New York, who believes music can be a powerful force for social change. As Executive Director of the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, she brings a performer’s perspective and a deep love of chamber music to her work with the Society.

Chamber music is at the heart of Isabel’s own musical life. She has performed in many chamber music ensembles, including recent engagements with the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble, Houston’s Kinetic Ensemble and the Friends of Vienna Chamber Concert Series. She has also given chamber music masterclasses internationally. She is passionate about new music and has premiered works at MoMA, Alice Tully Hall, National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, WNED, Cortona Sessions, and at the Luzerne Festival in Switzerland. She has also joined June in Buffalo for a few summers. She co-founded The Present Kairos, a multidisciplinary collective whose work has received an American Composers Forum grant.

Isabel teaches at SUNY Fredonia and spends her summers in Vermont at Point CounterPoint, a chamber music camp for pre-college students. Isabel is also Education Director at Buffalo String Works, where she first joined as a teaching artist in 2021. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of South Carolina, and Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. She is a certified Community Health Musician through Berklee’s Music and Health Institute. When Isabel is not engulfed in the wonders of music, you can either find her on a sunrise walk, diving into a new baking recipe, or swept away by a book.