About the Artists:Jesse Autumn is a composer, performer, music teacher, writer and arts administrator based in Santa Cruz, CA. She sings, plays piano, double-strung harp, cross-strung harp, piano accordion, tin whistle, banjo and kalimba, writes songs in the realm of piano-based folk/pop, and creates new arrangements of music from world traditions for double-harp and harp ensembles. She began teaching music privately in 1999 at the age of seventeen. 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, lead recorder classes at private schools and with homeschoolers, and since 2001 she has directed the Santa Cruz Harp Festival, conducting an orchestra of harpists of all ages and skill levels. Jesse has worked with contemporary dancers, predominantly with Sarah Day and Daniel Bear Davis (Shah and Blah Productions), in "Anatomy of a Cloud" and as part of "Discourse off the Walls: A Month of Dance in a Small Room". For many years she has been involved in the art scene of her home town, both as an organizer in the non-profit sector (Community Music School, Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts, Felix Kulpa Gallery, Tannery Arts Center), and as a performer and collaborator in concerts and art happenings. She's played with the White Album Ensemble (live re-creations of albums by the Beatles), Trio Hecubus (an acoustic world music group with Barry and Shelley Phillips, playing new and unusual instruments), Lori Rivera, Molly Hartwell, Librarians, Birds Fled From Me, and Ratpack Kirtan. She has played harp on more than a dozen CD's as a guest musician (recordings by Shelley Phillips, Barry Phillips, Aria DiSalvio, David Brewer, Molly's Revenge, Deby Benton Grosjean, the Banana Slug String Band, Joya Winwood and Mothersong Santa Cruz, Victoria Hanley, Freesia Raine, Gail Swain, John Astin, 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). In her early twenties she recorded two CD's of traditional and contemporary Celtic music - the first with a band of young trad musicians ("California Celt", 2002, sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council), the second with world-renowned cellist/composer Barry Phillips ("The Black Rose", 2004). Jesse currently teaches and writes music in a multi-discipline arts community in the Dead Cow Gallery at the Tannery Arts Center Krohn House, where she is composing material and arranging harp tunes for two upcoming recording projects, a singer-songwriter album and a music book/CD of new harp music for kids. She works regularly with twenty-one awesome harp and piano students and spends her spare time playing pianos, drinking tea, reading books, wearing pretty dresses and riding her bicycle.BARRY PHILLIPS is a composer, performer, engineer and producer who usually performs as a cellist, but is also very good at hitting things and has been known to play different kinds of percussion, namely the Indian tabla drums. He received his M.M. in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, then went on to record several albums for the indie record label Gourd Music. He has collaborated on many projects with a wide variety of artists, including folk icon Martin Simpson, sitartist Anoushka Shankar, singer/songwriter Ariel Thiermann, the British rock group Camel, Beatles band the White Album Ensemble, and Rumi poet Coleman Barks. Barry's unique style of playing reflects his many musical influences, including the Celtic and Scandinavian folk traditions, funk, rock, European classical and Indian classical music. He is a student of legendary sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, and was thrilled to get to play in Ravi's orchestra and in the rock orchestra for the Concert for George, a celebration of the life and music of George Harrison. Barry's latest CD "Trad" (also available on CDBaby), is a beautiful collection of Swedish, Norwegian and original music arranged for bowed strings, pipe organ and percussion. He resides in Santa Cruz, CA with his lovely wife, musician Shelley Phillips, and two very naughty cats.For more info on Barry, visit www.barryandshelley.com.
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