In 1989 Harry Chomsky decided to take a break from his graduate work in math at MIT and spend a year in the Bay Area. He was so enchanted with California and the ready access to nature that he never went back to graduate school or to Cambridge. Instead, he began singing with the San Francisco Bach Choir and found work as a computer programmer, a career that has allowed him to work mainly at home.
Harry began studying piano at the age of 6 and the violin three years later, and while he loved music as a child he almost gave up the violin in college, put off by the “violin jock behavior” exhibited by other musicians he encountered. But in Berkeley his interest in music began to expand, and he returned to the violin, first studying with Michael Sand, one of the founders of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. While Sand was a Baroque specialist, Harry studied modern violin with him, and later continued his studies with Joe Edelberg, whom he describes as a thoughtful player devoid of “violin jock” tendencies.
Moving to California also had the advantage of placing a bit of distance between Harry and the very large shadow cast by his father, linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky. Harry has a good relationship with his father, but one senses that it can be a challenge to develop one’s own persona in the presence of such a strong figure. His father and mother (who is also a linguist, specializing in childhood language acquisition) are not musicians, but listen to music and recognized and supported their son’s interest in it.
Harry played in community orchestras for a while, and in 1988, at the urging of Berkeley Symphony violinist Rick Diamond, he auditioned for Maestro Nagano and has been a member of the second violin section ever since. The BSO was the first professional-quality group he played in, and he remembers being “initially intimidated and ultimately thrilled with the uniformity of ensemble and attention to detail that was possible.” He adds that he is still occasionally surprised by “how much concentration and mental stamina is required to fit in with such a group, where everyone is feeling the music as one. It’s a fantastic experience.”
Asked if he listens to much music, Harry says, “I feel I always have music in my head, whether it’s something I’m playing right now or something that I know well that is running through my head, and I usually don’t want to impose more music on myself by listening. I think the background music I listen to is the music in my head, not something on a CD player.”
In addition to the Berkeley Symphony, Harry is a member of the Napa and Vallejo symphonies and plays on occasion with the California and Santa Rosa symphonies. He has worked for several different software development groups since moving to Berkeley, focusing on educational, personal finance, and database programs. Currently he works for Global English, a Web-based product for teaching English to non-English speakers.
An avid hiker and bicycler, Harry has reveled in backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada since moving to California, and comments on his particular love of the scenery above the tree line, where he finds the “sharp multicolored rock crags inspiring.” He and a friend have carried their mutual love of backpacking to such exotic destinations as Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains and Chile’s Torres del Paine. He lives in Albany with his wife, violist Amy Apel, and their son Alexander.
—Richard Reynolds, May 2005
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