Gelsey Bell

Gelsey Bell is a Brooklyn-based vocalist, songwriter, sound artist, 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 also plays the daxophone and other instruments.

Her works include Cairns, a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery (included on the New York Times Best Theater of 2020 list); shuffleyamamba, a dance piece created with Yasuko Yokoshi; Meander, a soundwalk created with Joseph White for Brooklyn Botanic Garden; SubtacTTTTTTTTT, an early pandemic online performance created with thingNY; Bathroom Songs, Scaling, Our Defensive Measurements, Skylighght (with Erin Rogers), Prisoner’s Song (with Erik Ruin), This Takes Place Close By (with thingNY), and the acclaimed adaptation of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives (with Varispeed).

She has released multiple recordings, including This is Not a Land of Kings and Home, with the Chutneys. 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, and a great many of John King’s Micro-Operas. She has a PhD from New York University in Performance Studies, is the Critical Acts Coeditor for TDR/The Drama Review and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, and is part-time faculty at the New School. www.gelseybell.com

Awards

Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Music/Sound

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