Isa Yélamo-Cockcroft (they/she/he) is a Venezuelan-American composer and performer native to Atlanta, Georgia, USA. They currently are attending University of Michigan in pursuit of a Master's in Music Theory and Composition and are based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

  
Influenced by movie and anime scores from the age of 8 and raised with the traditional music of Venezuela and the Roman Catholic Church, Isa began writing and transcribing music at 12 and began formal music education in the form of flute and occasional composition lessons with composer Nicole Chamberlain at 14. They played in honor orchestras and band clinics throughout high school before continuing to study music composition at Tennessee Tech University, from where they hold a Bachelor of Music Degree. Isa's primary teachers include Dr. Griffin Candey and Dr. Greg Danner in composition, Dr. Gözde Çakır-Ramsey, Dr. Mary Matthews, and Nicole Chamberlain in flute, and Dr. Diane Pulte in voice.

 

Isa's music is deeply inspired by their Venezuelan and Catholic roots as well as by their interest in social justice and musicology, using their works as a means of self expression, activism, and connection with others. They regard music as a uniquely universal form of human connection and expression that is as rich, diverse, and intertwined as the cultures of the world, the music of all of which deserve respect, study, and attention. Their works vary greatly in subject matter and tone, ranging from intensely personal and meaningful topics to silly, cute pieces for fun, all while maintaining fluid, connected lines and engaging hemiolas that are key elements in their musical voice.

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Along with primarily studying as a composer, Isa has performed as a flutist at the 2019 Viennese Masters Orchestra Invitational in Carnegie Hall with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta as well as with the Tennessee Tech Flute Choir at the 2022 MidSouth Flute Convention, the 2022, 2024, and 2025 National Flute Association Conventions, and the 2023 and 2024 Florida Flute Association Conventions. They have also toured with the Tennessee Tech Chorale as a tenor in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida in 2023, in Knoxville in 2024, and in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in 2025.

In their free time, Isa loves spending time with their cats, baking, beading, gaming, participating in activism, and studying physics, linguistics, art history, civil rights history, and ethnomusicology!

Full résumé and CV can be found here: