Iro Haarla (born 7 November 1956) is a Finnish jazz pianist and harpist, as well as composer and band leader.

[1] At the Sibelius Academy, in Helsinki, Haarla studied classical piano under Izumi Tateno, musical composition under Einar Englund, and improvisation under Heikki Sarmanto.

[4] They went on to collaborate extensively over two decades, and in a 2008 Washington Post interview, she stated that during that time she did not play her own music at all but was instead totally focused on supporting Vesala.

[5] As part of her support role she also broadened her instrument repertoire to keyboards, the accordion and especially the harp, in which she is entirely self-taught.

[5][3] Vesala died in 1999, and afterwards Haarla launched her solo career, performing in and leading numerous ensembles.