THIS CLASS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED - details TBA! Sorry for any inconvenience.

In this ear training class we’ll learn a tune without sheet music, utilizing musicianship skills that help pull notes out of the ether and into your fingertips. Learning tunes by ear develops a different part of your musician mind, and will help you understand music and harp playing in a deeper way. Also, the original tradition of Celtic harp was an oral tradition, so learning by ear is a great way to connect with and appreciate that tradition more fully.

(After class is over, a PDF of the tune will be sent out, so you don’t forget it!)

Class fee: $25 USD. Message at least 24 hours prior to class to sign up and get the Zoom link.

This workshop will be a masterclass in how to adapt music to the teeniest, tiniest of harps! The limitations of fewer notes and zero levers can be a portal to creativity and ingenuity - there’s no reason to shy away from exploring the possibilities a tiny harp can offer - you can make your tiny harp sing and play it like a true instrument. I’ll be using my 15-string harp as an example. Please bring your tiniest harp to class, tuned (or levers set) to C Major.

General $35 / Current Private Students $30 . Workshop is 75 min. Handouts provided.

To sign up, send me a message through the contact page & I will send payment info and Zoom link.

How do you improvise on the harp? How do you build a song out of nothing? Many harpists don’t know where to begin when first exploring the art of improvisation. This series will offer improvisational techniques and musical ideas to help develop your creativity and a sense of fun and freedom while playing! Each class may be taken individually, but attending the entire series is highly recommended. Current private students may attend classes for a discounted rate.

Sundays, August 10, 17 & 24 - 5pm PST / 7pm CST. Workshops are 75 min.

General: $35 per individual workshop / $95 when you sign up for all three classes.

Current Private Students: $30 per individual workshop / $80 when you sign up for all three classes.

How do you improvise on the harp? How do you build a song out of nothing? Many harpists don’t know where to begin when first exploring the art of improvisation. This series will offer improvisational techniques and musical ideas to help develop your creativity and a sense of fun and freedom while playing! Each class may be taken individually, but attending the entire series is highly recommended. Current private students may attend classes for a discounted rate.

Sundays, August 10, 17 & 24 - 5pm PST / 7pm CST . Workshops are 75 min.

General: $35 per individual workshop / $95 when you sign up for full series.

Current Private Students: $30 per individual workshop / $80 when you sign up for full series.

How do you improvise on the harp? How do you build a song out of nothing? Many harpists don’t know where to begin when first exploring the art of improvisation. This series will offer improvisational techniques and musical ideas to help develop your creativity and a sense of fun and freedom while playing! Each class may be taken individually, but attending the entire series is highly recommended. Current private students (month of August) may attend classes for a discounted rate.

Sundays, August 10, 17 & 24 - 5pm PST / 7pm CST

General: $35 USD per individual workshop / $95 when you register for all three classes.

Current Private Students: $30 USD per individual workshop / $80 when you register for all three classes.

Work on your ear training in this dynamic group class for intermediate harpists. We’ll learn a tune by ear and discuss methods to develop our abilities outside of the written page. (Sheet music will be provided after class, so you don’t forget the tune you’ve worked on.) This kind of training can only be done live, so don’t miss out on this fun workshop!

12pm Pacific / 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern

$25 / Zoom / message for link and payment details

For lever harps tuned in E Flat (three flats).

This is a streamlined class to help lever harpists learn all the keys on their harps. We’ll move through all the scales from Eb to E, learning a useful order of movements to memorize all our keys and get accustomed to fully utilizing the levers on the harp.

This class is on Zoom and it’s FREE! 12pm Pacific, 2pm Central, 3pm Eastern.

The final workshop of the series, Session 4 explores the Lydian scale - warm-ups, tools and tricks to strengthen musicianship skills and deepen our understanding of our music. Great for those who want to feel more “free” in their playing, or become more bold in their arrangements and improvisations. Double-strung harp is featured but single-strung harpists are welcome to join. Intermediate level.

Suggested donation $30 USD. (You can send a donation with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal.)

Email through the contact page for donation info and Zoom link.

Session 3 explores the Mixolydian scale, with warm-ups, tools and tricks to strengthen musicianship skills and deepen our understanding of our music. Great for those who want to feel more “free” in their playing, or become more bold in their arrangements and improvisations. Double-strung harp is featured but single-strung harpists are welcome to join. Intermediate level.

Suggested donation $30 USD. (You can send a donation with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal.)

Email through the contact page for donation info and Zoom link.

This is Session 2 of my new series, and this week we will focus on the Dorian scale. Each session explores warm-ups that train your hands and your brain to use shapes, patterns and tones that are useful in daily playing, arrangement, and improvisation, helping to develop a kind of background programming in the musician mind. Double-harp featured, but all harps included! Intermediate level.

Suggested donation $30 USD. (You can send a donation with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal.)

Email through the contact page for donation info and Zoom link.

I’m beginning a series of slightly informal creative workshops for Double Harp (single-strung players are welcome to sit it, but double harp will be in focus). The first session explores warm-ups that train your hands and your brain to use shapes, patterns and tones that are useful in improvisation, so we develop a kind of background programming in the musician mind. This will be fun and experimental! Each session with use a different key/mode as our jumping-off point. Intermediate level.

Suggested donation $30 USD. (You can send a donation with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal.)

Email through the contact page for donation info and Zoom link.

A Day Camp intensive exploring improvisation, accompaniment patterns, and playing tunes in 3 blocks of group classes. Bring your harp, tuner, music stand, and whatever else you may need to be comfortable. Open to intermediate and advanced lever, pedal and double-strung harpists.

1pm-5pm in the Fireside Room, St Philip’s Episcopal Church, Scotts Valley, CA.

The “book ends” to our harp camp are two concerts I highly recommend:: Grammy-nominated jazz harpist Brandee Younger’s concert Friday, March 28, 7pm, and internationally-acclaimed kora player Sona Jobarteh’s concert Tuesday, April 1st, 7pm. Both concerts are presented by Kuumbwa Jazz Center and concert tickets should be purchased in advance at kuumbwajazz.org

Schedule:

Friday, March 28, 7pm - harp “field trip” to Brandee Younger’s concert

Saturday, March 29, 1pm-5pm - group classes

Sunday, March 30 - harp re-stringings available

Tuesday, April 1, 7pm - (extra credit!) join me at Sona Jobarteh’s concert

Fee for Ensemble Class Day $75

Zoom Workshop for Double-Strung Harp Students only. This is a casual harp workshop to work together doing some basic exercises to strengthen our double-strung skills. We’ll warm up together and play through exercises. I will demonstrate some Double-specific techniques.

3pm Pacific / 5pm Central / 6pm Eastern. Message me for Zoom link.

Santa Cruz Harp Festival returns for a beautiful matinee concert celebrating the harp in its many forms. Featuring soloists Calvin Arsenia on vocals and folk/soul pedal harp, Jennifer Cass on classical pedal harp, Shelley Phillips on Celtic harp and Jesse Autumn on double-strung harp, the all-ages Community Music School Harp Orchestra, and an instrument “petting zoo” for curious concert-goers. Jesse Autumn returns as artistic director and harp orchestra conductor. Proceeds will benefit Community Music School, a non-profit educational organization serving Santa Cruz County.

This year we are overjoyed to present Calvin Arsenia as our special guest soloist. Calvin is an internationally-acclaimed musician and performance artist from Kansas City, MO, who seamlessly merges his soulful voice with agile harp accompaniment. His songs blend influences from R&B, soul, folk and quirky pop, and he brings an inimitable magic to all his performances.

Tickets $20 door/$15 adv, available at the link below. Kids under 18 get in free!

NOMA is excited to present Music in the Garden, a new outdoor music series this spring. Encounter the sounds of local New Orleans musicians while strolling through the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden on select Sunday afternoons beginning at 2 pm. Jesse Autumn will play Double-strung Harp for this event on Sunday, May 14.

No registration is required. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is free and open to the public seven days a week.

An all-Irish livestream concert to benefit my upcoming trip to the Dingle Peninsula. Tune in at 11am Pacific / 1pm Central / 2pm Eastern at my Facebook music page, Facebook.com/JesseAutumnSongs for a live, interactive online concert. I’ll be playing my vintage Lyon & Healy pedal harp for this one. Song requests welcome!

Featuring soloist Elizabeth Yeoh-Wang on pedal harp. The New Orleans chapter of the American Harp Society presents its 11th annual concert extravaganza highlighting harpists from across Southeast Louisiana, including Jesse Autumn on Double-Strung Harp. 2pm, East Jefferson Regional Library, Metairie, Louisiana. This concert is kid and senior friendly and wheelchair accessible!

There will be Music on the Porch once again following Krewe of Barkus! Stay posted for more details.

I’ll be jamming with New Orleans legend Amzie Adams on my porch before Krewe du Vieux! This is part of my informal Music on the Porch Carnival concert series, hosting duets around the Marigny parades during Mardi Gras. We will tentatively play about an hour before each parade. Amzie Adams is a well-known artist, musician, and French Quarter character, a creative force in New Orleans since the 1960’s. He makes music on guitars and electric mountain dulcimers. We will be jamming in a folk and blues kind of way on my porch on Dauphine Street, near Nonno’s Cajun Cuisine. You can hear us around 5pm ish. Performance time is totally subject to change. We will livestream on my Facebook music page.

Krewe Boheme rolls this Friday, and that begins my special porch music series for Mardi Gras 2023! I’m hosting very informal, short performances on the porch on Dauphine Street, to play before each neighborhood parade in the Marigny. Roll by Dauphine near Nonno’s Cajun Cuisine and you’ll find us. Music is tentatively scheduled for the hour before each parade begins. This is subject to change if there is other loud music going on in the neighborhood.

Friday the 3rd will be a duet - Harp and Saxophone - with my partner Scott “Scojo” Johnson, playing world music. We will livestream on my Facebook music page.

Santa Cruz Harp Festival returns with an in-person concert of Celtic, Classical and Double-strung Harps, a Harp Orchestra and Harp “Petting Zoo”! Sunday, January 22, 3pm at the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, CA. Tickets $15 general, $10 students / seniors. More info at communitymusicschool.org

Jesse Autumn (double harp) and special guest Shelley Phillips (flute) will play two sets of world music at Flora Gallery & Coffeeshop in New Orleans! Music from Ireland, Wales, Sweden, Bulgaria, Zimbabwe, France, Japan, Cuba, and contemporary composers. This event is FREE and kid-friendly! Weather permitting, we will be playing outdoors for covid safety. Please bring your mask and vax card for entry to the café. Homemade Persian dinner by Ali. Flora is located at the corner of Royal St and Franklin Ave in the Marigny.

Join me for an early set - 5pm til 7pm - at Flora Gallery and Coffeeshop in the Marigny, New Orleans. Live world music, holiday tunes & improvisation on double-strung harp. Enjoy delicious and affordable Persian plates by Ali. Please wear a mask while indoors.

This event is FREE - donations are appreciated!

Join us in person every Third Thursday of the month for Harp Night at Flora Gallery & Café in the Marigny, New Orleans! Live world music & improvisation by Jesse Autumn on double-strung harp. Music will be outdoors, with the harp amplified so you can hear it inside or outside. Enjoy delicious and affordable Persian plates by Ali.

7-9pm, must wear a mask and bring vaxx card to go inside. This event is FREE - donations are appreciated!

Join us in person every Third Thursday of the month for Harp Night at Flora Gallery & Café in the Marigny, New Orleans! Live world music & improvisation by Jesse Autumn on double-strung harp. Music will be outdoors, with the harp amplified so you can hear it inside or outside. Enjoy delicious and affordable Persian plates by Ali.

7-9pm, must wear a mask and bring vaxx card to go inside. This event is FREE - donations are appreciated!

Join us in person for Harp Night at Flora Gallery & Café in the Marigny, New Orleans! This event was rescheduled because of Hurricane Ida - this month it will be the last Thursday, Sept. 30th. Live world music & improvisation by Jesse Autumn on double-strung harp. Music will be outdoors, with the harp amplified so you can hear it inside or outside. Enjoy delicious and affordable Persian dinner by Ali.

7-9pm, must wear a mask and bring vaxx card to go inside. This event is FREE - donations are appreciated! Kid-friendly!

(Usually Harp Night is the 3rd Thursday of every month.)

I’m returning to my home in New Orleans after two weeks evacuated from Hurricane Ida. If my utilities are working fine (they should be), I will be going live at 8pm Central with my beloved double harps! All proceeds go to our hurricane relief needs, and whatever we don’t need will be shared with musician friends in our immediate community who were also displaced.

6pm Pacific / 8pm Central / 9pm Eastern

Tune in at Facebook.com/JesseAutumnSongs

Donations can be made with: Venmo @Jesse-Autumn , CashApp $JesseAutumn , PayPal.me/jesseautumn

Harp music from around the world, live at Flora Gallery and Café in the Marigny, New Orleans. I’ll be playing tunes from Wales, Ireland, China, Japan, Sweden, Bulgaria, Cuba and modern composers. Socially-distanced outdoor seating available. Bring your mask and vax card (or recent negative covid test), as per the City of New Orleans’ new mandate. This event is FREE - tips appreciated!