Izzi Dunn

Izzi Dunn, born Isabelle Dunn, has lent her distinctive touch to an array of recordings as an English cellist and vocalist. Music entered her world early, shaped by a mother who performed opera after classical training and a father active as a singer and radio host, prompting cello lessons at age nine. Sheffield-born and raised in Hastings, East Sussex, she absorbed traditional jazz and classical repertoire as her parents regularly spun discs by Frank Sinatra and Stan Kenton. A scholarship took her to the Trinity College of Music, where exposure to U.K. soul and hip-hop broadened her horizons. She sharpened her instrumental command through repeated live appearances and studio sessions, which opened doors to partnerships with accomplished British performers.

Those associations encompassed Roots Manuva, Duran Duran, MJ Cole, and Wookie before she issued her debut self-titled EP in 2002, an effort widely celebrated for its rich, varied sonic range. The Big Picture, her first full-length album, arrived the following year on her own Fireworx imprint and drew similar notice for its inventive writing and Dunn’s flexible command of texture, tone, and atmosphere. In 2005 she assembled the all-female string ensemble Demon Strings, whose joint projects soon brought visibility through work with Madness and Damon Albarn’s ventures Gorillaz, Blur, and the Good, the Bad, and the Queen.

Further solo projects followed, including the 2010 album Cries & Smiles and the 2012 Visions EP, both of which extended her palette while foregrounding cello and voice. Breakbeat, neo-soul, trip-hop, and electronic folk threads wove through these pieces, which continued to earn regard for their candid, observant lyrics. Recycle Love, her third album, surfaced in 2017 and featured Demon Strings alongside the Leeds-based Haggis Horns; produced by Dennis “Dego” McFarlane of 4hero, it captured the unease, paranoia, and division of the social climate while turning inward on personal reflection.