Artist Profile: Ethan A. Chaves ’26 Talks All Things Music, Composing, and Performing

Virtuosic. Loud. Electric. That’s how award-winning composer and musician Ethan A. Chaves ’26 characterizes his music, and it’s hard to disagree. Chaves has occupied the music scene for much of his life and has won numerous awards such as the Harvard Pops Orchestra Composition Competition, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, and the New Music on the Bluff ’22 Festival Award. Now, studying philosophy and music at Harvard in addition to composition at the New England Conservatory in the dual degree program, he shows no signs of slowing down.

Chaves recalled his first dive into music at around seven years old — “late,” he said, for classical musicians — and how composing presented itself to him soon after. He quickly began filling in the empty lines below his violin exercises, which developed into a deep love for the craft.

“I didn’t even know composing was something you could do when I was that young, but it was just something I started doing naturally,” Chaves said in an interview with The Crimson.

However, Chaves faced several challenges as he got more invested in music, having to switch teachers several times and therefore approach learning in different ways.

“That made me very flexible,” he said.

Speaking further about his musical progression, Chaves made note of his eight years spent in the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, emphasizing the importance of community. The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, an organization dedicated to nurturing young minds in music, has been an important stepping stone on his musical journey so far.

“I think playing in a group is essential to being a musician, not only because it exposes you to other people’s voices, it exposes you to other repertoires. I think it also makes you responsible as a person,” he said. “It can get lonely if you're practicing all the time and you’re composing alone. I think playing with others helps you find your own voice as well.”

Chaves was exposed to Harvard early on, performing at Sanders Theatre with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor, Federico Cortese, also conducts the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. Chaves also gave credit to his time spent both at the New England Conservatory and Harvard, the former for keeping him “grounded” as a musician and the latter for the variety it offers. This dual experience, he says, has allowed him to break out as a composer even more.

“I’ve started composing way more at Harvard,” he said.

Venturing further into the details of composition and performance, Chaves made his “strong feelings” on the two subjects clear, viewing them as “inseparable” in his life.

“A long time ago, it used to be very common for people to play their own works, play their own arrangements. [In] recent decades, we’ve moved away from that, but I really think it’s important, and I’m glad a lot more people are starting to do this,” he said.

Earlier this semester, the Bach Society Orchestra performed Chaves’ composition, “the broken seal.” He had high praise for this performance.

“It really spoke to what I like to do, which is to collaborate with organizations, play my own music, but without separating myself out into different niches,” he said.

Chaves emphasized the benefits of collaboration further in that it gives his music “life” that it might not have had without it, especially in light of his routine frustration when finishing a piece.

“Maybe I go to a friend’s recital, hear their piece, and I think, ‘Oh, what am I even doing with my life? I need to change.’ But I think the desire to keep writing stems from your dissatisfaction with your own work,” he said.

Indeed, this creative drive has led Chaves to much experimentation in his music, adding grunge and rock elements to his compositions and even composing for a jazz septet as a high-schooler.

“Jazz is definitely an area where people breathe life in a completely different way,” he said.

Chaves sees the freedom in improvisation as an important inspiration.

“You let yourself go free; you also have to think and compose in real time, which really changes the way you approach, I think, art in general,” he said.

Chaves even enjoys working with literary texts, citing T. S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” as his first major experience doing so.

“Working with text is tricky because, again, it’s incorporating someone else’s voice as a framework through which you’re trying to engage with another person,” he said. “I’ve started to really enjoy writing with text like the opera project I’m working on now.”

Chaves also values highly the drive that his creative process has imbued him with.

“I compose better in the mornings, but I’m not a morning person. I usually have to will myself up to do work,” he said. “I compose best when I have a tight deadline; I need the pressure to really commit myself. I have a very one track mind, so I really commit myself to one thing, for even an extended period of time, but with that deadline sort of pushing up against me.”

Chaves’ most prized instruments are the violin and viola; he appreciates their versatility the most.

“They’re very nimble instruments,” he said. “I find them very personally and physically expressive.”

There’s a lot more to come from Chaves in the near future — with several performances lined up for 2025 — his upcoming opera, set to be finished for next year, is the main thing to look forward to. It is clear that Chaves has an exciting path ahead of him and is a dynamic musical prospect.

Chaves also has some useful words of advice for other young composers and musicians: “Write what you want to hear in the world,” he said.

Performer, composer, creative — Chaves is a testament to what it means to be an artist, and breathes life into all he does, a level of passion for which all artists should strive.