Voices for Voices®

Music Crosses All Boundaries: A Conversation with Dr. Isaacson | Episode 205

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 205

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Music Crosses All Boundaries: A Conversation with Dr. Isaacson | Episode 205

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What happens when we step beyond our comfort zones and say "yes" to unexpected opportunities? Dr. Isaacson, Orchestra Director at Kutztown University, reveals how music creates profound connections that transcend traditional barriers in this enlightening conversation.

The discussion weaves between humanitarian efforts in Ukraine refugee centers and innovative musical collaborations that transform lives. When Hearts for Music—an organization providing musical opportunities for those often overlooked by society—approached Dr. Isaacson about a joint performance, the results were nothing short of magical. One young participant who typically resists rehearsals couldn't wait to get on stage, while another found rare moments of calm and happiness through the orchestral experience.

This episode delves deep into how our perspective shifts as we mature, moving from self-focused ambitions toward community impact. "With age comes wisdom," reflects Dr. Isaacson, "hopefully, the ability to see beyond yourself and how you can impact society." His journey mirrors the growth of Kutztown's music department, which has expanded to five degree programs since 2016, always seeking ways to use music as "a tool for good."

The conversation reveals striking parallels between artistic vulnerability and personal growth—how being willing to take risks and prioritize emotional connection over technical perfection creates more meaningful experiences for everyone involved. Whether discussing the logistics of humanitarian aid or the delicate balance of orchestral performance, the message remains consistent: authentic engagement requires courage, openness, and a willingness to be present in the moment.

Looking for inspiration to make a difference through your own unique talents? This episode offers practical wisdom from two passionate advocates who've discovered that our greatest fulfillment comes from connecting with others and serving something greater than ourselves.

Dr. Isaacson, Orchestra Director at Kutztown University, shares how music creates powerful connections and transcends barriers through innovative collaborations like Hearts for Music. His journey from traditional orchestral conducting to community engagement demonstrates how saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities can transform lives and communities.

Please give us a thumbs up, subscribe, and share our content. If you're able to donate to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we'd greatly appreciate it as we work toward our goal of helping 3 billion people.

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for all your support. We're making big strides. We just hit episode 200 on our way to 300 total episodes by the end of 2025, which includes in-studio episodes as well as remote episodes like the one that we're doing right now. So if you can give us a thumbs up, if you can subscribe, if you could share Many of you know my goal of wanting to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond so if you're able to help out, if you're able to donate we are a 501c3 nonprofit you can do that.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But you can again. You can just subscribe and like and share our content and that will be amazing and that doesn't cost anything just having an Internet connection, basically. So here we are. This is part two of our conversation here in Kutztown, kutztown University. We are speaking again with the guest we obviously had on the first episode. I'm back.

Dr. Isaacson:

He's back.

Justin Alan Hayes:

The orchestra director here at Kusen University, dr Isaacson, and we are going to continue that conversation. So thanks again, my pleasure. Just so many different topics and how they interact and play, and we talked off camera. Just about communication and connection, the human connection, how you and I want to be sitting here last night. What might have happened, hearts for music and many other things throughout our lives that we wouldn't have, we wouldn't have known or we wouldn't have done something because we didn't know it was there. Can you just speak on just how that impacts things?

Dr. Isaacson:

Sure, I'd be glad to.

Dr. Isaacson:

You know, we have a funny saying, well, and when I think about it, it's that common saying that you know everyone's separated to Kevin Bacon by six degrees of separation.

Dr. Isaacson:

I think in the arts and in music it's like two really.

Dr. Isaacson:

Literally, because of all the teachers you run into and professionals in the profession, someone is undoubtedly connected in your past in all kinds of ways that are unexpected or they'll mention I can't tell you how many times this happened in my career where someone who says, well, I was taking a lesson with this so-and-so and that was one of my teachers or someone that I worked with, and so I find that to be really interesting continuity in that way, particularly if you're teaching applied music, because if you say you're taking violin lessons or piano lessons or trombone lessons, whatever it is, you're studying with someone who studied with another person, who studied with another person, who studied with another person.

Dr. Isaacson:

You can trace that lineage all the way back to some pretty interesting people, and so you realize that the continuity and the legacy of that is really human and definitive. Sometimes in music and art it seems a little ephemeral, like what is the result, what's going on, but then when you really look at it, that tradition of how someone might play or express themselves or what they hold dear pedagogically as a teacher, mentor, gets passed on, and so I think that's really really interesting in terms of connections.

Dr. Isaacson:

where I think our conversation kind of really intersects is getting out of your comfort zone. Yeah, based on just our little, our conversation we had off camera about what your podcast has been tackling, what you you've done, not just as a musician but delving into other realms, and I find that fascinating, really listening to that, and so I think for me I haven't had the opportunity to do that like you have, but what I've gained from talking to you and thinking about it is that saying yes to things that you really have no idea about can lead down some very fruitful and interesting endeavors, like Hearts for Music or for your organization, voices of Voices. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Hearts for.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Music.

Dr. Isaacson:

And so I really I enjoy those intersections and I feel that they enrich our lives tremendously in unexpected ways for sure.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, and I think the part of it is being present in the moment of yeah, I mean being present.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I was on a mission trip to Ukraine a couple, a couple years ago and went to Kiev and uh, which was just an incredible experience just to be with the people the air raid sirens and it was.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Unfortunately, I had to keep a lot of the details from my family because the previous year we were put in contact with an organization that was running a convention center in Warsaw, poland, where they were taking in Ukrainian refugees, and it was just a huge convention center and it was basically makeshift with cots.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I think there was like 3,000 people there and it was, and so that's where they were living, and a lot of them, if not all of them, they left with the clothes on their back and that was it, and so we were looking at how can we make a difference. Interestingly enough was having traveled to Western Europe around that time and I had a couple extra days and what I was gonna do was fly home and then fly back, so I was gonna go to Greece and then to Frankfurt, germany, and there was a couple days where I was like, oh, I'll fly back home do laundry, and then I started to think I'm like, well, I'm over there in the region I'm not going to say over is there something that like we can do to make an impact?

Justin Alan Hayes:

taking the politics out of it? Whose side? But just getting down to the human person that didn't have hygiene products and little things that. So we ship and big thanks to ups, obviously, my brother-in-law works, works there and he helped make it happen but we shipped a couple hundred uh hygiene kits, uh we, we took uh books and ukrainian then the language to give to the kids, and so we were able to do this thing, and it wouldn't have happened if I wouldn't have seen a news story in a newspaper to even have the ball rolling, because my mind was made up here's my itinerary itinerary. And so I ended up over the convention center and I also.

Justin Alan Hayes:

We as an organization, we wanted to not only do donate the books and the hygiene products, but we know medicine. It was a big thing that they needed, and so they needed dollars or the currency, the euro, and so we had collected some money and we wanted to share that with the staff to be able to purchase medicine for that amount, and if I want to have an interpreter with me, even though I had already set up that this is the day, this, this is the time that I'm going to come and donate, and just logistically. And then the languages. And now I know English and I saw it. I think I saw a tip somewhere. It said hire a travel guide, and they can also be an interpreter.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And so I had booked a trip to one of the Holocaust camps in Poland. So happened that that, uh, I'm saying that person that's doing the going to tours, and so it paid for that, but then she also does the interpreting. She knew it was Russian and then Ukrainian English, and and I said, hey, uh, if this is possible, just let me know, this is only going to take maybe an hour. Can you come pick up at the?

Justin Alan Hayes:

hotel put all the boxes and everything in, draw the convention center. We'll do that, and then we'll go on to the the planned visit. And she said, oh yeah, that's fine. And so we came to the gate and I had paperwork and info saying that I was who I was and what I was there for and we're pointing like here you keep going inside, here's what we have.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And they were just going to take the things right there at this kind of checkpoint. And and I'm like and this is kind of where some of the ego creeps back in at certain points I didn't just travel to make an extra trip to be able to do this, you wanted to see it and it was a lot of money to ship it and I was like I want to see it through, of course. And so if I wasn't with an interpreter that knew those languages, she was able to bring the barriers of security down, talk with them in their native language and they gave the go-ahead, showed us where to park, so we did that and we did the hygiene kits and in the books. And then we had the money and we said, oh, we were like, can you accept this? We'd like to donate, so you purchase medicine for some people that need it. And they said, well, which is very interesting, looking at some organizations here, they said we can't accept donations of like money, like we can accept things like food and clothing and hygiene products, but we can't.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But we know somebody who has a residence that is housing mothers with small children from Ukraine, and so the interpreter was talking to the staff at the convention center. So I don't know like where is it? So they did all this talking and I was like, yeah, I got the time. I'm willing to cut the visit short what we were planning to do, if need be. I'm willing to cut the visit short what we were planning to do, if need be.

Dr. Isaacson:

And so we got in the car and sometimes when you're traveling you don't know exactly where you're going. Yeah, I can imagine that was a bit nerve-wracking. I was like, okay, what's actually happening, Especially in a war?

Justin Alan Hayes:

zone. So we arrived and we were met by one of the mothers and they gave us a tour and there's artwork from the children. There's a flag, there was one of the daughters was celebrating their birthday and I said, like how can we help? And the interpreter's like well, there's a. You know, there's a grocery store down the road. Why don't we take one of the moms? Cause there there's probably about there was a huge residence, um, and there was probably about 30, 35 between them, the moms, and then the children, and so we weren't taking like the only mom there away, uh.

Justin Alan Hayes:

so one of the moms came with us, jumped in the car, went to the grocery store, bought like tangible food there were their stands or there's some fresh fruit and and went back to and we were gonna buy birthday cake for the daughter, but then it was her mom that was with us and says no, no, no, we want to make it. So we bought all the ingredients on top of all the meat and the produce and unloaded it, and it was just how the connection came to be.

Dr. Isaacson:

If we would have been at the convention center, I might not have even got into the convention center if I didn't have a translator and so human connection is just incredible that I get asked uh, so to kind of bring it, bring us back, I would.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I was asked at a another visit, a second trip, where there was basically the same type of setup in Constanza, romania, and we were just, we were talking like, and the person that runs the organization says you know, how did you decide to come here to help? And like how does that go on in your mind and I come back to I'm using that extra energy, I don't drink coffee.

Dr. Isaacson:

I do, I need it, you don't, and so people do.

Justin Alan Hayes:

You drink coffee, you drink Red Bulls. Like how do you have this energy? You drink coffee, you drink red bulls. Like how do you have this energy? And I'm literally just using that energy that I was using for not great things to hopefully do the purpose that that I'm here with. So, when an opportunity comes available and it's able to be worked out, in my head.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm like, yeah, like I'm gonna be over there, let's do it. And people are like, well, how did you make that decision so quick? It's when we have certain mindsets and things that are like our own values and, as individuals, when things connect and if it's able to be worked out financially or time-wise, whatever that may be and I think, with hearts for music, they're coming from a spot where a lot of people have counted it, counted them out, and then we talked a little bit off camera and maybe some of this was on camera about how hard some music started and Kittrell of he wanted to make a and still wants to make a huge impact with the human population and for those orchestra members that can come and that can vary from day to day based off of how they're feeling and whether they can get a ride and so many things we take for granted.

Dr. Isaacson:

Yes, I think the general public doesn't always, or people who don't experience certain parameters or dealing with diversity in that way. They don't understand, because it can be a triggering thing for someone and then they're almost paralyzed. And to to go forward, where there's autism and someone's having a meltdown or anxiety or whatever it may be, most people they put their shoes on and their shirt on, boom, let's go.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And it doesn't always work that way and I think judging comes into play where I I mean I'm for sure, guilty as charged judging people, situations, and when we take a step back and we're not judging the person because we don't know what's going on and what has happened in their life that day, or to a loved one, and, and that's one thing that once I found a way to take a step back and just be present in a moment and not you know, I would start cursing when I was younger and like, oh, this and that, and now it's. It's quite the opposite, where I don't say I'm, I'm one of you, like I understand to an extent, because there's things that happen to me and I'm probably outwardly. Look in here things and people are going, wow, he's crazy here but what?

Dr. Isaacson:

it's easy to make a snap judgment, and I think in our society there's a kind of a an angle where, where it goes, it can go negative in that snapshot, because that kind of that kind of draws in an audience look at what this person is doing and suddenly it's on social media and then you can get a whole bunch of commentary about that and people can kind of unload their whatever they've got pent up in there and it kind of spirals out of control.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I can see what you're saying yeah, so I'll bring it back to our conversation and being here and just the performances that you give. I want to make sure I give you time to talk about how many?

Dr. Isaacson:

performances you give and then definitely the information.

Justin Alan Hayes:

if somebody wants to learn more about the work that you do, the classes you have just have that brand, sure sure I'm happy to do that on behalf of Kutztown University and the music department as a whole.

Dr. Isaacson:

Kutztown is really, I think, a school on the rise. We have five degree programs now. We have a BA in Performance, BA in Commercial Music and also Music Business, which is not even an audition degree. It's more about the managerial side of the music profession, and so since I've been here I came in 2016, three of those degrees have been added into the curriculum and so we've seen the school grow in nine years about 100 majors. So it's exciting and I think that's really a nice thing to be a part of that growth.

Dr. Isaacson:

In terms of the orchestra and how we interact directly, we are a traditional kind of standard orchestra you'd find at a college or university with a strong music department, and we give four standard repertoire concerts a year, plus the holiday concert, and we run the concerto competition, and two of them performed last night before we went into Hearts for Music. So that is sort of a central point of what I do. I train young musicians to go out and become music educators. Teachers go on to grad school or simply as a stepping stone to a more professional orchestral setting, if you will. So that is kind of the focal point of my job here. I also teach violin and some classes that go along with that, conducting oral skills, string tech, which is an educational course that where music ed majors learn the rudiments of how to play an instrument stringed instrument because in education you have to be broad-based.

Dr. Isaacson:

If you're getting in the classroom, you might be a vocalist who gets put in front of an orchestra one day, so you have to know a little bit about that. So an education degree is very comprehensive here, which is good and I think is one of the hallmarks of our school. So that's kind of what I do and I'm excited because I feel like this. What happened here with Hearts for Music is along the lines of what I'd like to do further and supporting hearts music, I'd love to do another collaboration and I'd also like to find more ways to utilize the orchestra and and music as a tool for good. Yes, that's, I think, primarily what I've come to in my life, and I think it's a little bit about the humility that you've been talking about. It's not all about you and me, and I feel like that is a central thing, I think, to being happy in life and to feeling the gifts that life gives you.

Dr. Isaacson:

If you're open to that boy, there's some really wonderful things coming your way, and so I would like to find ways for us as a department, and also for the orchestra to reach into communities that may have need, whether it be instruction or even a benefit concert, to benefit this organization or music in that way. And so I've actually been thinking. Before Hearts for Music came along, I had sort of an idea about a lesson project within the town here for starting with stringed instruments and I've reached out to some people about that and then going further, adding other instruments, because we have full complementary of all styles of music and instruction right here, and so the students themselves could benefit from giving that instruction and we could be giving something back in the area to support that. And so I think, in a way, when paige haidt and I mentioned her in the last podcast came and said, hey I'm involved as hearts for music organization.

Dr. Isaacson:

Do you think the orchestra might be interesting in collaborating? I was already kind of open to that, but if I had not been thinking along these lines and kind of like what you were talking, about in. Ukraine. That probably wouldn't have happened because and especially if I was maybe 15 years younger 10 years younger I think I was more myopic in a lot of things and more maybe narrowly focused about what's possible. I think with age comes wisdom.

Dr. Isaacson:

Hopefully not in every case, but but wisdom and, hopefully, the ability to see beyond yourself and what you can, how you can impact society. How can I make a difference? How can I do something that helps other people and makes connections? I think that's profoundly important, and you might think that, well, I'm doing music, so how do I actually do that? And so part of the hurdle is getting beyond what your normal sense of expectation may be. What's possible, yeah.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So how does it make you feel when you hear feedback from a past student or your approach after a concert and somebody thanks you and says you know great job, it's not fake, it's authentic. How does that? Because I try to bring a little bit of the emotions into it because no matter what level CEO, president, director we all have emotions. It's just how we decide whether we want to share them or not. But, related to the orchestra, your mind was already in that space of hearts for music. It's like, okay, you wrote it, you didn't have to think, you had to think, but it was already on the line of your mind, so it happened, maybe a little quicker than if it wasn't. It might be like, okay, let's talk about that for next year or two years.

Dr. Isaacson:

So can you just tell me about?

Justin Alan Hayes:

that.

Dr. Isaacson:

Yeah, of course I think that interaction, that dialogue, is very important, because if you close yourself off in any way to anyone and this, I think, goes to the crooks of the audience the audience-performer relationship is very important, because if you are in any way closed off and not sharing something, they're not really going to want to listen, they're not going to get it. So it is generally scary to be very expressive on stage. It's scary to do something dangerous and a little different and be spontaneous making music, because what could happen? Oh boy, we could have a wrong note, someone's not together over there and this is not as tight as it should be. Well, sometimes that's okay, because what you're going for is a message, and if it is too much in a stra, a straight jacket, it's too straight ahead. The message doesn't always get out, but there's a fine line. Of course we don't want to put stuff out there that's not well-crafted, and if it's not together and it's out of tune and it's generally not polished to a certain degree, then that's not good either. So it's like finding that straight line line. So when I have someone come up and really genuinely like the concert and talk about that, I do feel some gratification from that, because it means that we gave them something, we shared something and that message was received in a good way.

Dr. Isaacson:

And so I always try to and sometimes I'm more effective in this than others but I try to get out after the concert and come away from the backstage so that, particularly where our auditorium is, so that I can interact with people who come. And I always try to meet the parents too, because I want them to know that I care about their students, because I do and I feel like as an educator when they sign on to come to KUU, I feel a real commitment to make sure I educate them in the best way possible and then I'm giving them everything that I can give them within the structure here. So but but I also want to meet people who, not just the parents. I also want to meet the general audience, members who are interested in music and have a good experience, because that tells me a lot of information about what they liked and maybe what they didn't like. And how can I reach that general audience for the broader cause of music. That's important. We can't just play always the same things. We have to touch on some of the standards, because that's educational and I understand that. But we have to break out of those molds a bit and I feel like Hearts for Music definitely did that because that expectation of what a university orchestra or professional orchestra is going to do, that was not on the table for most people showing up to that concert who were just in the general public.

Dr. Isaacson:

They didn't really know what that was about. The logo was on the poster but it didn't really describe what they were about to see and I think they were profoundly moved. I haven't had a chance to check my email so much because I think I mentioned earlier that my son was autistic and my kids are with me right now and a dog and so on top of that concert it's just been craziness. But I, when I was on there, just quickly, I did see there was a number of comments that had come in about the concert. So that will be hopefully positive and gratification for everyone, because a lot of times you don't hear that that's right. So the fact that it is coming in tells me a lot that that concert was very meaningful and it had an impact and I hope it really gave great experience for Hearts for Music participants and gave them something they haven't experienced before in a positive way and gave them something they haven't experienced before in a positive way.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And, as you mentioned, one of the Hartsfield musicians, the probably the youngest little Cece you talked about how usually now they go on rehearsal and it might be a little tough to get her to wanna come, and last night she was so excited. Might be a little tough to get her to want to come and last night she was so excited to be on that stage.

Dr. Isaacson:

Yeah, yeah Well, I got a text message from Jackie, who runs the PA chapter here, and she said you know CeCe. She indicated that Cece is sometimes reluctant to go into the rehearsal or performance and she was apparently just excited and elated and couldn't wait to get on stage. So that I think already there is really nice. And I met Jennifer last night, whose son is Mark who is in a chair, last night, whose son is Mark, who is in a chair.

Dr. Isaacson:

And so she can interpret body language, cues and communication in ways that I can't, because I know this from my own son, who's not very verbal, and there's certain things I hear and see as a parent that no one else can pick up on, or maybe his sister and his mother can as well. And so we were just talking and she was telling me exactly the impact that the performance had on him and, more importantly, she said that sometimes, like when the concert's over and there's all this sound and that can be distracting, you know, you could. She said you could see him visually closing off a little bit. But he said, while he was doing the music on stage and while we were playing, the KU orchestra was playing their portion, he was just calm and happy and enjoying it, and so that was really, really gratifying to me, because that's a gift that only music could do for him and I'm glad and proud to be a part of that.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Fantastic. We are at the end of our episode here. Our second one, dr Isaacson. Thank you so much for all you do, for taking that opportunity with Hearts for Music and just being a compassionate human being on top of being the director of the orchestra here at Kutztown.

Dr. Isaacson:

Thank you. Thank you, justin. It's been such a pleasure, not only a podcast, but also just talking with you in between. You're a very interesting person and I appreciate how you share.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Thank you, and we want to thank you, our viewers, our listeners. Thank you again for joining us. Uh, again, if you can give us a big thumbs up, if you can like, share, subscribe, we would greatly appreciate it. We want to thank kutusen university. We want to thank Dr Isaac Sin for not only joining us for these two episodes of the show, but for being a real champion for music, for the human experience, for helping through music, and that's one thing that has helped me even at the age of 43. So until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need. Thank you.

Justin Alan Hayes:

That was fun.

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