ISABELLA MANFREDI

Kylie Kwong celebrates the individuals helping to grow a stronger community. This month, we meet musician and music industry advocate Isabella Manfredi.

In my mid-20s I was given the opportunity to work in the best Italian restaurant in the country, The Restaurant Manfredi. I was the luckiest young chef around, each service I had the privilege of learning directly from the family; Franca Manfredi and her two talented sons Stefano and Franco. A spirited young Izzi used to bounce in after school heading straight for her beloved Nonna and the family kitchen. I’ve loved feeding Izzi over the years and watching her blossom into an all-out rockstar, mother and, just like her formidable grandmother, an articulate, pioneering, powerful force.

There’s a kind of hair flick only a seasoned rock god can pull off; an onstage power move that turns a room of individuals into a single entity and shifts crowds to their feet. Isabella “Izzi” Manfredi perfected her version of the flick during her 10-year stint as frontwoman of The Preatures, the ARIA-nominated Sydney band, which parted ways in 2021. Offstage, she wields her rock star superpowers to bring people together for the Keep Sydney Open cause. “Moves like that come from many, many years on stage trying different things. It’s unstructured and spontaneous. There’s no choreography in what I do,” she says.

It’s no secret, the last two years has put live music on hold. For Manfredi, the pandemic also coincided with a band breakup, the launch of a solo career and the birth of her first child, Mina, now eight months. “I do those moves in the mirror with my baby now. And she laughs at me,” she says.