Jesse Autumn 

is a musician, artist and writer based in New Orleans, USA. She is one of the foremost performers of the Double-strung Harp, and sings, plays concert harp, piano, accordion and harpsichord. She writes surrealist chamber folk, minimalist instrumental music, and arranges world music for double-strung harp and harp ensembles.

Background:

Jesse is known predominantly as an instrumentalist arranging world music with the double-strung harp in center focus, and as a singer/songwriter writing music for voice and chamber instruments. She’s released two singer/songwriter recordings - Live EP and Bright Stars, featuring string ensemble lead by Grammy-winning producer/cellist Barry Phillips; three albums of Celtic and World music, California Celt (sponsored by the California Arts Council), The Black Rose, and Uisce (Water); and an experimental soundscape album, 31 Days of Audio, that was recorded as part of the national art project Fun-A-Day 2010 and released in a multi-media exhibit at the Dead Cow Gallery. Her original music has been used in the Santa Cruz Film Festival, short films by Ray Sumser, the documentary film Inspired by California by Kirby Scudder, and dance performances in the USA, Greece and Mexico. As a guest artist she has appeared on 20+ recordings including albums by Irish vocalist Éilís Kennedy, multi-instrumentalist Shelley Phillips, and recordings on the Gourd Music label.

Jesse teaches in person and online to students in the USA and abroad. She is one of the world’s leading performers and teachers of the Double-strung Harp, a unique instrument with two parallel rows of strings. She has run a private harp and piano studio since 1999, and taught group classes at Alternative Family Education, Santa Cruz Waldorf School, Tannery Arts Center, and Community Music School of Santa Cruz, where she was harp/piano/accordion faculty for Kids’ Trad Camp, Teen Trad Camp and Redwood Music Camp over two decades. In 2003 she founded the Santa Cruz Harp Festival with her harp duet partner Shelley Phillips, and served as Artistic Director from 2003-2024, leading an all-level harp orchestra and presenting soloists on classical, Celtic, wire-strung harp, electric harp and kora. In 2020 she joined the faculty of the New Orleans Jazz Pop Harp Weekend, and continues to work with them in harp education through the New Orleans’ Chapter of the American Harp Society. Throughout the pandemic in 2020-2021 she hosted an online concert series “HarpStream: Music from around the world, for friends around the world”, occasionally joined by her partner, jazz saxophonist Scott “Scojo” Johnson.

Jesse has collaborated in live performance with dancers/choreographers Sarah Day and Daniel Bear Davis (Shah and Blah Productions), Ana Flecha, and Jonathan Parvis. She is also passionate about visual art, collecting art and painting miniature paintings in her spare time. Through participating in a live/work arts community over ten years at the Tannery Arts Center, she collaborated with multi-disciplinary artists in performances, recordings and gallery shows, including partnering with painter Sarah Bianco to organize “ITTY”, a show of tiny 2”x2” works with over 30 artists at Apricity Gallery. As a writer, her work can be found translated into French in artist Malika Moine’s beautifully illustrated tome, Balade à la Nouvelle-Orléans (Stomping n’ Strolling in New Orleans). She did cover art design for Deborah Spencer’s first book of poetry, Pomegranate. She has worked as an advocate, volunteer, board member, concert producer and contributing artist with galleries and nonprofit organizations including the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art, Dead Cow Gallery and Recording Co-op, Artspace USA, Tannery Arts Center, First Friday Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Santa Cruz Symphony, Cabrillo Music Art & Wine Festival, 418 Project, Cultural Council Associates, Community Music School of Santa Cruz, Felix Kulpa Gallery, the Attic Gallery, Mill Gallery, Apricity Gallery, and Radius Gallery.

Jesse relocated to New Orleans in 2016 with a strong desire to hear live jazz every single day. She can often be spotted in a pretty dress riding a turquoise bicycle around the French Quarter.