So first of all I clearly don’t over-utilize the “news” section of this website. It has seemed kind of pointless to me lately. When I have new upcoming shows or new videos, I just post them. Seems like a waste of time to then also inform my news page. (Who actually reads this anyway?) I couldn’t think what kind of information I should place here. However, then I got some exciting news!

I’ve been commissioned by Roulette with funds from the Jerome Foundation to write a new piece for fall 2012! Yeah!

So I guess I’ll let the news section survive for a little while longer. If you ever have any great ideas for how to use this little corner of my digital space, feel free to share. In the meantime, I have some music to write….

So I don’t know where to start. Last month I came out with a new album! It’s been many years in the making and my parents tell me they like it (phew!). So go to the music’s page to listen to snippets of tracks. Go to myspace to listen to full tracks. Go to CD Baby or iTunes or Amazon or whatever and buy the album. Go to the (still and moving) Image’s page and see videos from the CD release party. Shout it from the mountaintops! And then milk your lonely embarrassment by listening to the album more.

I’m also doing all this other stuff, ’cause apparently I’m crazy. So go to the Show’s page and check out info on Cage’s Song Books, T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, or George Aperghis’s Sextuor.

What are you doing in the news section? Go over to the music section and listen to my new single!!!

I want to thank everyone who helped make it a reality, especially my producer Chris Tabron, who’s just awesome on every level. Also the great players: Sean Pearson (guitar and bass), Ian Frey (drums), and Evan Honse (trumpet). And a special thanks to Paul Pinto for the use of his toy piano. That thing’s got attitude.

The new album, In Place of Arms, will be released in mid-September. Hope this single gives you a nice taste of what’s to come. There will be a CD Release Party at my old haunt Caffe Vivaldi on September 12th. If you’re in New York, please join us! (Unless you won’t enjoy it or you’re smelly.)

Things are moving moving moving…

Check out the make-over to Land of a Gelsey! Thank you to Adrian Cousins who took Garret Schneider’s beautiful original design and brought it up-to-date with new flair. I PROMISE I will never have an excuse for not keeping this website current again. There is sure to be more tweaking in the next little while, but we’ll do our best to not have the website out of commission for any long periods of time. So explore, enjoy, and inform me of typos.

Meanwhile I have two super exciting shows coming up next week. The first one on Friday night at Roulette, where I will be performing Tom Swafford‘s “This Is the Real Me,” a 15-minute distilled opera which I spent many hours helping develop last year. Then, on Saturday night thingNY will be playing a set at Issue Project Room, sharing the bill with Iktus percussion quartet. New music mania!! All the info is on the shows page. Hope to see some smiling faces (or serious thinker faces) there!

It’s an exciting time as spring slowly begins to hit New York. Every day, the new album is a little bit closer to be ready for release and new projects always seem to be forming on the horizon. For whatever eyes wander this website’s way, I’ll be in touch.

Thurs. May 24, 2012, 7:30pm
The Music of Ellen C. Covito
Presented by the No Collective and Panoply Performance Laboratory
Vaudeville Park
26 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn
$7
This is the first concert of the Argentinian composer/improviser Ellen C. Covito outside Buenos Aires. One of the most radical composers of her generation, Covito’s work focuses on modulating the problematic dichotomy between composition and improvisation in highly inventive, lucid and humorous ways.

Thurs. May 31, 2012
thingNY’s Seven Immediacies Series v. 4
featuring thingNY and PPL’s Private Time and Endurance Exercises
from TIME: A Complete Explanation in Three Parts
as well as Jason Anastasoff and Odeya Nini
Vaudeville Park
26 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn

Sat. June 2, 2012, 6pm
Vocal Movement
Facade/Fasad
Red Hook
I’ll show a new song cycle. Odeya Nini and Melinda Myers will also be showing work.

Sat. Sept. 1, 2012, 8pm
Gelsey Bell
The Stone
Corner of Ave C and 2nd St.
New York, NY
$10

Wed. Sept. 5, 2012, 8pm
The John Cage Variety Show Big Band in the Cage100@Stone Festival
The Stone
Corner of Ave C and 2nd St.
New York, NY
Directed by Miguel Frasconi
Miguel Frasconi (flute, electronics). Daniel Goode (clarinet), Gelsey Bell (voice), Kathleen Supove (piano), Chris McIntyre (trombone) & TILT Brass, Cristian Amigo, Richard Carrick (guitars) David Watson (bagpipes), John Zorn (sax) and many others.
Celebrating the composer on the day of his birth, 100 years ago. Pieces will include Sonata for Clarinet (1932), In a Landscape (1948), Fontana Mix (1958), Aria (1958), Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960), Variations II (1961), Solos from Song Books (1970), Child of Tree (1975), c Composed Improvisations (1990), and an ensemble performance of 4’33″ (1952).

04.06&08.12: Vinko Globokar’s Un Jour Comme Un Autre, thingNY, Chasama, LIC, NY
03.25.12: Composer’s Voice Concert Series, Jan Hus Church, New York, NY
03.11.12: Gelsey Bell’s SongFix at CultureFix, New York, NY
02.23.12: Gelsey Bell at Super Coda, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
02.14.12: The Chutneys at the Experimental <3 Festival, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
02.11.12: “Concert for Piano and Orchestra” in Cage Unlocked, Avant Music Festival, Wild Project, New York, NY
02.11.12: ROULETTE KIDS: Your Voice, My Violin with Tom Swafford, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
02.05.12: DanceRoulette with Julie Alexander, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
02.02-04.12: Georges Aperghis’s Sextour: l’origine des especes, Joria Productions, New York, NY
01.23.12: “First Aid Kit” in Box, Box, Box: two composers and two performance artists transcend medium, traditional performer-audience relationships, and expectations for the use of familiar cubic objects, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
01.19.12: thingNY at the Launch of the Compedium, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
01.16.12: Excerpt of Georges Aperghis’s Sextour: l’origine des especes in Experiments in Opera, Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY
01.13.12: “This is the Real Me” and improvisation with Jeff Young, Paul Pinto, and Broadcloth, 756 Chapel St., New Haven, CT
01.12.12: SCALING and Beasts of Improvisation on Parade, Nave Gallery, Somersville, MA

2011

12.22-23.11: Dance and Process with Julie Alexander, the Kitchen, New York, NY
12. 4.11: Varispeed at Performers Forum, Exapno, Brooklyn, NY
11.30.11: Stefanos Tsigrimanis Memorial Fund and Concert, Performance Studies, NYU, New York, NY
11.19-11.21.11: Robert Ashley’s That Morning Thing, the Kitchen, New York, NY
11.06.11: Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives arranged by Varispeed, New York, NY
11.05.11: SCALING at the Vital Vox Festival, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
10.21.11: The Chutneys with Fast Forward and Chris Cochrane, The Stone, New York, NY
10.01.11: Experimental Voice in 3 Acts, iBeam, Brooklyn, NY
09.11.11: Jay Vilnai’s Shakespeare Songs with Mivos String Quartet, Barbes, Brooklyn, NY
07.16.11: John Cage’s Song Books, Merce Fair, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
06.26.11: thingnY’s IN HOUSE, private home, Brooklyn, NY
06.25.11: thingNY’s IN HOUSE, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
06.23.11: thingNY’s IN HOUSE, University of the Streets, New York, NY
06.21.11: John Cage’s Litany for the Whale with Megan Schubert, Make Music New York, Central Park, New York, NY
06.18.11: thingNY’s IN HOUSE, Queen’s Historical Society, Historic Kingsland Homestead, Flushing, NY
06.04.11: Coco Karol’s pericardium (re) beat with Coco, Andrew Livingston, and Luke Gutgsell, Bushwick Open Studios, The Morgan, Brooklyn, NY
05.08.11: Tom Swafford’s “This Is The Real Me,” The Stone, New York, NY
05.04.11-05.14.11: thingNY and PPL’s TIME: A Complete Explanation in Three Parts, The Brick, Brooklyn, NY
04.15.11: thingNY and PPL’s TIME: Part One, Dixon Place, New York, NY
03.06.11: Bathroom Songs, SITE festival, Northeast Kingdom, Brooklyn, NY
03.05.11: Bathroom Songs, Performancy Forum, SITE festival, Surreal Estate, Brooklyn, NY
02.25.11: thingNY’s SPAM: v.2.o, La Guardia Performing Arts Center, Long Island City, NY
02.18.11: Georges Aperghis’s Sextuor: L’origine des Espèces (New York premiere), Wild Project, New York, NY

2010

12.22.10: Gelsey Bell, Coffee Catz, Sebastopol, CA
12.19.10: thingNY, Profiles, Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY
12.04.10: Philip Glass, Knee Plays from Einstein on the Beach, Darmstadt Essential Repertoire, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
11.30.10: thingNY, A celebration of the artistic life of Stefanos Tsigrimanis, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
11.22.10: Gelsey Bell, Rockwood Music Hall, New York, NY
11.09.10: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
11.08.10: Gelsey Bell, Googie’s, New York, NY
10.06.10: John Cage’s Song Books, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
10.03.10: Detour’s Election Music, with Tom Swafford, the Tank, New York, NY
09.16.10-10.10.10: Murder in the Cathedral, dir. Alec Duffy, Church of St. Joseph, Brooklyn, NY
09.12.10: Gelsey Bell, CD Release Party for In Place of Arms, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
08.10.10: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
07.05.10: Gelsey Bell, Comformer Perposer One-Year Anniversary, New York, NY
07.02.10: Stationary, Cafe Orwell, Brooklyn, NY
06.12.10: Bathroom Songs, University of Toronto for PSi#16, Toronto, ON
06.07.10: Gelsey Bell, Comformer Perposer, University of the Streets, New York, NY
05.22.10: Earth Celebrations: Hudson River Pageant. Original music with Paul Pinto. Charles St. Pier, New York, NY
04.18.10: ThingNY, SPAM v1.2, The Tank, New York, NY
03.20.10: ThingNY, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
03.19.10: This Is the Real Me with Tom Swafford, Roulette, New York, NY
02.28.10: Quarterly Arts Soirée, Webster Hall, New York, NY
02.05.10: ThingNY, French-American School, New York, NY
01.14.10: Beowulf with Banana Bag & Bodice, The Slipper Room, New York, NY
01.14.10: ThingNY, University of the Streets, New York, NY
01.12.10: Beowulf with Banana Bag & Bodice, Arlene’s Grocery, New York, NY
01.10.10: Beowulf with Banana Bag & Bodice, Piano’s, New York, NY
01.09.10: Beowulf with Banana Bag & Bodice, The Living Room, New York, NY

2009

12.09.09: ThingNY, SPAM, University of the Streets, New York, NY
11.19.09: Avant-Garde-Arama with enemyResearch, PS 122, New York, NY
11.15.09: This is the Real Me with Tom Swafford, Douglass Street Music Collective,Brooklyn,NY
11.07.09: ThingNY, part of The Internationalists – Around the World in 24 Hours, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Long Island City, NY
05.31.09: ThingNY, Yippie Museum Cafe, New York, NY
04.02.09: ThingNY, Nuyorican Poets Café, New York, NY
02.14.09: ThingNY, Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
02.04.09: ThingNY, The Stone, New York, NY
01.06.09: Gelsey Bell, Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY

2008

10.16.08: ThingNY, thingNY does Berio, Secret Project Robot, New York, NY
06.21.08: ThingNY, Make Music New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
06.09.08: Gelsey Bell, Rockwood Music Hall, New York, NY
04.22.08: RINDR with Urisov, Dixon Place, New York, NY
04.17.08: Gelsey Bell, Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY
04.05.08: ThingNY, The Tank, New York, NY
02.17.08: ThingNY, ABC No Rio, New York, NY
02.14.08: ThingNY, Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY
01.15.08: Gelsey Bell, Turf Club, St. Paul, MN

2007

04.23.07: Prism with Urisov, Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
04.06.07: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Cafe, Bethlehem, PA
02.25.07: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Cafe, Bethlehem, PA
02.17.07: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY

2006

11.16-18.06: Performance (career ender) with Claude Wampler, The Kitchen, New York, NY
10.21.06: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Café, Bethlehem, PA
10.19.06: Telephone Songs, AUNTS, The Events Center, Brooklyn, NY
04.28.06: Gelsey Bell, ArtsLehigh, Bethlehem, PA
02.17.06: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Cafe, Bethlehem, PA
02.11.06: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
01.13.06: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY

2005

12.08.05: Gelsey Bell, Sidewalk Cafe, New York, NY
12.?.05: Plastic Bag, Dixon Place, New York, NY
11.30.05: Plastic Bag, AUNTS, some loft, Brooklyn, NY
10.29.05: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
10.19.05: TCITCW duet with Urisov, AUNTS, The Events Center, Brooklyn, NY
10.09.05: Gelsey Bell, Caffe Vivaldi, New York, NY
09.09.05: Gelsey Bell, Rockwood Music Hall, New York, NY
04.22.05: Song Cycle in Time/Space, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
03.16.05: Gelsey Bell, Benefit for Habitat for Humanity, Lamberton, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
02.05.05: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Café, Bethlehem, PA
01.05.05: Peacocks with Urisov, Abode Bookstore, San Francisco, CA

2004

12.30.04: Gelsey Bell, Koffee Katz, Sebastopol, CA
12.24.04: Gelsey Bell on “Curtain Call,” KRCB Radio, Rohnert Park, CA
11.20.04: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Cafe, Bethlehem, PA
11.19.04: Gelsey Bell, Raubsville Inn, Easton, PA
11.13.04: Gelsey Bell, Benefit for Good Scholar Election, Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, PA
11.06.04: Gelsey Bell, Raubsville Inn, Easton, PA
10.02.04: Gelsey Bell, Indian Rock Inn, Bucks County, PA
09.25.04: Gelsey Bell, The Wildflower Cafe, Bethlehem, PA
08.13.04: Kinderglow with Urisov, Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Profile on Gelsey Bell, a look at my work as a whole after the SCALING premiere
Chris McGovern
The Glass
December 1, 2011

A Fresh Stamp on a Veteran Composer’s Work, a review of Varispeed’s performance of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives
Steve Smith
The New York Times
November 8, 2011

Vital Vox 2011: A Review, a review of SCALING
Chris McGovern
Sequenza 21
November 8, 2011

Vital Vox: “A & Q” With Gelsey Bell, interview before the premiere of SCALING
Daniel J. Kushner
The Huffington Post
November 4, 2011
extended version on You’re So Post-Post-Rock Right Now

Five Minutes with Gelsey Bell, interview after the release of In Place of Arms
Pete Harris
Indie Sounds
September 9, 2010

MORE ON PROJECTS I’VE BEEN A PART OF

Sextuor: L’orgine Des Especes, by Caroline Picard, Bad At Sports, 02.15.12 (My solo is singled out as “particularly moving.”)
2012 Avant Music Festival: Review – Celebrating John Cage at 100, by Chris McGovern, Sequenza 21, 02.14.12
Jay Vilnai’s Shakespeare Songs: Dark Otherworldly Intensity, Lucid Culture, 01.12.12 (“Indie classical doesn’t get any better than this.”)
Best and Worst of 2011 in Opera, by Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 12.18.11 (Varispeed’s Perfect Lives one of the Bests!)
The Best (and Worst) of 2011, in Classical/Opera by Steve Smith, Time Out New York, 12.11.11 (Varispeed’s Perfect Lives #7!)
Language and the Limits of Coherence, Review of That Morning Thing by Steve Smith, New York Times, 11.23.11