Jesse Autumn is a composer, performer, music educator and arts organizer. She sings, plays piano, double-strung harp, pedal harp, piano accordion, pump organ, glockenspiel, and the occasional tin whistle. She writes songs in the realm of piano-based folk/pop and arranges traditional world music for double-harp and harp ensembles. Her most recent album, "Uisce", a collection of folk tunes from around the world performed on double harp, was released in late 2008, as well as two EP's of live songs from her singer-songwriter shows that were released as appetizers anticipating her current studio project, a full length collection of original music due for release next summer. In 2008 her song “The Time-Jumper” appeared on “The Sounds of the Mighty San Lorenzo”, a double disc compilation of up-and-coming artists from Santa Cruz, CA. Earlier projects include two CD's of traditional and contemporary Celtic music – her debut album with a band of young trad musicians (California Celt, 2002, sponsored by an ethnic arts grant from the California Arts Council), and her sophomore album with longtime friend, world class cellist/composer Barry Phillips (The Black Rose, 2004). In addition to her solo work she has played with the White Album Ensemble and the Santa Cruz Symphony (live re-creations of albums by the Beatles), Trio Hecubus (an acoustic world music group with new and unusual instruments), Indie Americana band Mylo Jenkins, jazz singer Lori Rivera, soulful singer Molly Hartwell, the Librarians, Birds Fled From Me, and more unusual acts such as Atlantis (comedic conspiracy-theory rock and roll musical) and Ratpack Kirtan (an indescribable cross between Frank Sinatra and Indian devotional music). She has played harp on over a dozen recordings as a guest musician (recordings by Shelley Phillips, Sharon Allen, Barry Phillips, Aria DiSalvio, David Brewer, Molly's Revenge, Maggie the Cat, Deby Benton Grosjean, the Banana Slug String Band, Kai Lillie, Joya Winwood and Mothersong Santa Cruz, Tether Horse, Victoria Hanley, Freesia Raine, Gail Swain, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chant Choir), in addition to recordings for special events (imagine music for a giant turnip "dress" designed for an avant-garde fashion show). She has worked with contemporary dancers and choreographers Sarah Day and Daniel Bear Davis (Shah and Blah Productions) in "Anatomy of a Cloud" and "Discourse off the Walls: A Month of Dance in a Small Room", and Ana Flecha in "My American Dream", composing music for dance pieces and usually performing live. For many years she has been involved in the art scene of her home town, as an organizer, concert producer, board member and administrative assistant in the non-profit sector (Community Music School, Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts, Felix Kulpa Gallery, Tannery Arts Center, Dead Cow Gallery and Recording Co-op), and as a collaborator in shows with writers, dancers and visual artists. Jesse began teaching music in her late teens. Since then she has specialized in Irish folk harp, double-strung harp and neo-African polyrhythms, taught piano and musicianship/ear training for songwriters, been a faculty instructor for harp, piano and accordion at the Community Music School summer Celtic camps, coached the School's acoustic Teen Band, and taught recorder classes to elementary-aged children. Many of her private students have been with her for years. Since 2001 she has been artistic director of the Santa Cruz Harp Festival, leading an orchestra of harpists of all ages and skill levels. Jesse lives and works in a multi-discipline arts community at the Tannery Arts Center, and spends her spare time playing pianos, drinking tea, reading books, painting with the neighbors, wearing pretty dresses and riding her bicycle.
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