Local musicians have been unable to perform live during the coronavirus shutdown.
However, one D.C.-area artist is streaming harp performances to ease our anxiety.
“Harp music is so soothing,” Kristen Jepperson told WTOP. “Watching someone play can be hypnotic. Harp is used a lot in music therapy and some friends of mine had a wonderful business where they would go around and play for people who were in hospice.”
Jepperson, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, has been playing the harp for 42 years.
“My parents were really trying to get me to find something that I would be interested in, and I think I finally landed on the harp because nobody else plays it,” Jepperson said. “It’s unique. It’s also just lovely. … If you throw the harp off a building, it still sounds good.”
Prior to the shutdown, Jepperson played three days a week from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Towers Crescent in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
She also played several days a week during “high tea” at the Willard Hotel in D.C.
“In December, it becomes huge, and it gets a little bigger right around now for cherry blossom [season], which obviously is not happening,” Jepperson said.
When she first heard of the coronavirus, she had a sickening fear of unemployment.
“Your stomach just drops,” Jepperson said. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, musicians are always the first thing to go,’ and since we’re self-employed … there’s no government assistance. After 9/11 when everything shut down, I had a job at the Mayflower Hotel that was gone immediately. … That was the first thing I thought, ‘Oh, God, this is gonna happen again.'”
Fortunately, Quadrangle Development offered to continue paying her for the Tysons Corner gig, at first to continue in person at the lobby and then to play remotely from home.
“I actually cleaned out one whole side of my dining room, which was not an easy task,” Jepperson said. “I repainted the wall a little, then set up the harp and figured out where I could put a camera and set up some flowers. I just tried to make it a pretty little set.”
With the camera rolling at home, she decided to livestream on social media.
“I just thought since I’m playing this gig anyway, and frankly, everybody’s working from home, I’m just going to start streaming this on Facebook,” Jepperson said.
And so, she still performs the same times Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
“Hopefully, when it comes time for them to think, ‘Can we pay her for another month without her coming in?,’ they’ll think, ‘Look at all this wonderful publicity she got for us.'”
Soon, it sparked her entrepreneurial spirit to organize a special Friday livestream.
“I called it the ‘Quaran-Tea,'” Jepperson said. “Grab your scones, your Champagne and your tea and hang out with your friend, while I play some harp in the background.”
She was surprised to see how many viewers tuned in to watch.
“It blew my mind,” Jepperson said. “It grew and grew and grew. … For a random person playing in their dining room, 1,000 people watching my video is fairly amazing.”
This went so well that she expanded to perform for date nights on Saturdays and brunch on Sundays, gaining roughly 200 to 400 viewers each, depending on the time slot.
“I’ve gotten hundreds, maybe even a thousand or two comments every time I play, which is so wonderful,” Jepperson said. “I was feeling so alone and tense and horrible, but now that I feel like I may be connecting and helping people, I feel so much better.”
If you like what you hear, you can certainly donate to the cause.
“I am taking donations,” Jepperson said. “I am not saying you need to give me money. There are plenty of people who have less than I do, so just watch and feel better. But if you’ve got a little extra and you’ve still got your job, I would just love if you would help me.”
More than for the money, she said she mostly does it to stay sane.
“Frankly, it gives me something to do,” Jepperson said. “It’s just really good to have a little normalcy in my life.”
