Videographer discovers the harp and plucks away the COVID-19 pandemic becoming a star in the process

Videographer Naomi Silver-Vezina discovered the harp during the pandemic and has taken the passion to YouTube.

MONTREAL — Since the first wave of COVID-19 lot of people have been searching for comforting distractions and new activities to help pass the time. Montrealer Naomi Silver-Vezina is no exception, and managed to turn a new hobby, into an overnight internet success story.

Just before the pandemic, the videographer was introduced harp music on a film set where the instrument was being used as a prop.

“I started messing around with it,” she said. “I think I spent five minutes with it and I just fell in love with the instrument.”

So when the lockdown began and work dried up, she dove into teaching herself to play the harp, mostly by watching videos online. She says it came naturally to her, because she’s been playing piano since she was a child and the two instruments have a lot of similarities.

“I was compulsively playing the harp just to kind of distract myself from everything that was going on,” she said. “I never really understood music therapy was all about until the lockdown started and I was like oh, this is why music is so beneficial. Just to feel centered.”

Then Silver-Vezina took her new passion to the next level by combining her harp performances with her love of filmmaking. She started posting her covers of popular songs to her Youtube Channel Naomi SV. She says she wanted a way to share what she was doing with her friends and members of her family, but was thrown for a loop when one of her videos went viral with more than 3.5M views.

The video, features Silver-Vezina performing a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s the Sound of Silence, near her parents’ home in the Eastern Townships.

She also posted an outtake of the same performance, where a curious deer appears in the background before taking-off into the forest. She has since posted another video, where as if in a fairytale, she’s photobombed by a deer, yet again.

Silver-Vezina has received a lot of positive feedback on her harp videos and thinks part of the reason people are drawn to them, is the soothing sound the instrument makes.

“I think right now we all need to just calm down and relax a little bit,” she said. “We might be subconsciously looking for those sources of calm and peace.”

She also hopes others will be inspired to pluck away at something new.

“You never know what is going to end up bringing you happiness and I think it’s definitely worth jumping into a hobby or anything you think might interest you.”