Isa Haro, who graduated in March of 2024, concentrated in Art, Film, and Visual Studies with a secondary in Music. During her time at Harvard, Isa says she spent most of her time in the Music Department, where she focused on Composition. “For the last two and a half years, I’ve been studying synthesizers, so my main instrument in this moment is the Buchla synthesizer that we have in the HUSEAC studio.” Isa, who grew up playing piano, says “It is a modular synthesizer, which means that I route every signal individually, wheras a keyboard synthesizer usually has the routing done already. It’s not like playing a keyboard at all, which is why I was so interested in them … it was a brand new method of making music where you’re using electricity to make the sounds.”
Q: Describe how you chose your path of musical study at Harvard. What influenced your decisions?
“I grew up playing music, it has always been part of my life. I always thought I would be a musician, until I started making visual art. During the pandemic, I was home and I started making music again. I realized that my dream has always been to write music, but I had been too scared when I was first [at Harvard] to approach it. After the pandemic, everything felt so precious and as if there was no time to waste. It was almost like there was no reason not to anymore, I knew I couldn’t take anything for granted. That’s when I started taking composition classes.”
Q: Which music courses have you found the most rewarding, and why?
“Storytelling with Sounds with Hans [Tutscku] was lifechanging. It is where I learned that music can be anything I want it to be. All of a sudden, I could hear music in places I never had before. The class that gave me a lot of technical knowledge and skills, but it also expanded my understanding of music and sound, how sound exists in the world, and how we interact with it. It was also when I first met Hans, and told him about my interest in synthesizers; it was during this course that I started playing the Buchla [synthesizer]. I was so happy to have access to [the synthesizers] we have here in the Music department, especially the Buchla. It’s a legendary instrument, and one of the first modular synthesizers.
I also got to take one-on-one composition lessons with Chaya [Czernowin] for a year, and the experience that helped me grow as a person and learn to believe in myself and the things I am creating. I learned what it means to be a creative person, what it means to imagine. Watching Chaya’s [Fromm Foundation] concert was pivotal for me, seeing how she realized her vision so uncompromisingly. I left thinking that the world is so full of possibility; everything is so open now, there are no rules.”
Q: Is there an experience within the Music Department that helped shape your artistic identity? How do you hope to carry that with you after graduation?
“When Tyshawn [Sorey] visited one of Claire Chase’s classes and conducted his autoschediasms piece of conducted improvisation, I got to be part of a very large ensemble and sing. In real time, you could see him compose and hold in his mind all of the different sounds we were creating. It was almost as if he was playing the ensemble as an instrument. Tyshawn is one of the few people in my life that I’ve encountered and thought to myself “that guy is a genius.” From that experience I learned so much about improvisation and what he calls “spontaneous composition.” I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been part of that.”
Q: Do you have any advice for students in the department?
“I talk about this a lot, how wonderful the Music Department has been to me. There hasn’t been a single moment that I haven’t felt completely welcomed and supported. To me, it’s a very unique community in that it’s very tight knit, the people support each other. It feels like everyone is invested in each other’s growth and interested in what they’re doing. I think that’s part of the reason I ended up gravitating so much towards the department later on, even though I wasn’t concentrating in Music. I wanted to be in the warmth and joy of this community, and I’m incredibly grateful to have been welcomed in.
I find it refreshing that everybody I’ve encountered is so generous with sharing what they’re doing in their musical practice, and also interested in what everybody else is doing. I had taken a big pause in music, in my life, because I had a few bad experiences and I was disappointed. The Music Department helped me to love music again and feel like I can do it; it’s been incredibly empowering. I’m really grateful I had this change of heart, because I’ve met the most amazing people and grown so much as a person. If I could, I would tell my [past] self to go to the Music Department earlier, I would tell myself to not be afraid.”