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Do you know Vera Meyer? You may not be aware of it, but you probably do. She’s the woman who plays the glass (h)armonica in Harvard Square most weekends. She is also the co-founder of Glass Music International, a YouTube sensation, and a real hoot to boot. “It was thought to cause insanity, but I feel fine,” Meyer says of the glass harmonica in her YouTube video, and she certainly plays fine as well. Meyer’s MySpace is a wealth of information about her instrument, which was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761, based on the idea of simply rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass. Franklin took separate wine glasses, removed the stems, and placed the glasses on a spindle for easier playing. As Meyer’s MySpace says, “the sound of the instrument was described as ethereal, haunting, mystical, ghostly, coming from nowhere, pervading everywhere.” However, though the sound of the glass harmonica was initially appreciated for its beauty, its noises soon became reviled as the cause of insanity, nervousness, and convulsions. If you feel a little shaky when you listen to Meyer, maybe that’s why—but we prefer to think it's because of her skilled playing.

Meyer found out about glass music in 1983, and soon purchased a glass harmonica made by Gerhard Finkenbeiner, the best in the business. In addition to playing the glass harmonica, Meyer rebuilds heirloom grand pianos. Her personal history is also fascinating: after her grandparents died at Auschwitz, her father joined the U.S. army and earned a bronze star by making German soldiers surrender. The army returned Meyer's father to Harvard, where he spotted a bike made in his hometown of Bielefeld, Germany. He waited on the Widener Library steps for three hours to see who the bike belonged to, and eventually met the owner: Meyer's mother. Meyer was born in Cambridge and learned German as her first language, but she certainly speaks the language of music beautifully as well. If you've never heard her play, head out to Harvard Square some weekend for a real treat.