GELSEY BELL

Gelsey Bell is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and scholar. She has been described by The New York Times as “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” and “a charismatic and fiercely intelligent performer.” She is a core member of thingNY, Varispeed, and the Chutneys. She is currently a resident artist at the HERE Arts Center and is looking forward to a music residency at Pioneer Works in November 2022. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, the Japan Foundation, and others. Recent residencies include Mount Tremper Arts and the Kinosaki Arts Center in Japan. Her recent works include Cairns (2020), a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery (included on the New York Times Best Theater of 2020 list); shuffleyamamba: Yamamba as a Bear (2021), a dance piece created with Yasuko Yokoshi; Meander (2021), a soundwalk created with Joseph White for Brooklyn Botanic Garden; SubtacTTTTTTTTT (2020), an early pandemic online performance created with thingNY; and Skylighght (2019), created with saxophonist Erin Rogers. She has released multiple albums, including the EP This is Not a Land of Kings, and performed her work Performance highlights also include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Improvement and Crash, Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens, Gregory Whitehead’s On the Shore Dimly Seen, Anthony Gatto’s Wise Blood, and a great many of John King’s Micro-Operas. She has a PhD from New York University in Performance Studies, and is part-time faculty at the New School.