I’m really excited to announce that I won a DownBeat Outstanding Performance Award in the Original Composition, Orchestrated Work/ Graduate College category for my composition Midnight Swim (2013) for big band that was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dave Rivello, featuring Colin Gordon on soprano saxophone. Here is a link to the recording:

I’m also thrilled to announce that I will be graduating this month with a Ph.D. in music composition. Following Commencement, I will be composing a 20-minute opera, commissioned by the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, for a fall premiere at the Kennedy Center. In June, I will also be participating in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute readings in New York City, where my new orchestra piece “Crystal Skies” will be played by the American Composers Orchestra.

And, I just found out that I will be an Assistant Professor in Music theory in the fall at Nazareth College! I look forward to continuing my teaching there, and working with such an amazing team of professors, administrators, and students.

The premiere of my chamber opera/scenic cantata “Christabel” was a huge success! It was such a pleasure to work with such amazing performers. Here is the video from the April 28 premiere at Eastman School of Music:

Christabel (2012) – a chamber opera/scenic cantata in 2 acts
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Christabel” adapted to libretto by Alexandra Tursi and Jennifer Bellor

Jennifer Bellor, composer
Lindsay Warren Baker, director
Danko Daniel Drusko, conductor

Pablo Bustos, Narrator
Natasha Drake, Christabel
Emily R. Mills, Geraldine

Alicia Mastrella,Christabel dancer
Katie Rhea, Geraldine dancer

Andrew Pramuk, Sir Leoline
John Leighton, Bard Bracy

Emlyn Johnson, flute
Wai Ki Wun, clarinet/bass clarinet
Lauren Cauley and Elizabeth Ehrlich, violin
Kelsey Farr, viola
Audrey Snyder, cello
Wan-Ling Chuang, bass
Chiao-Wen Cheng, piano
Megan Arns and Drew Worden, percussion
Aaron Staebell, drums

The premiere of my new chamber opera Christabel will be premiered Sunday, April 28th at 9pm at Eastman School of Music in the Ray Wright Room (ESM 120).

The three principle roles are:
Narrator, performed by Pablo Bustos
Christabel, performed by Natasha Drake
Geraldine, performed by Emily Mills

Attached are audio files from a rehearsal. For the performance, the singers will all be amplified. The narrator was unable to be at this rehearsal.

For the composition portion of my dissertation, I wrote a chamber opera titled Christabel, using Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Christabel” as a libretto. For the purpose of the opera, my colleague Alexandra Tursi and I worked together to shorten the version of the poem in addition to incorporating stage cues and indicating which character is speaking or singing. The opera is approximately 35 minutes in duration, and the cast comprises five roles: Narrator, a tenor; Christabel, a lyric soprano/coloratura; Geraldine, a soprano with a darker timbre; Sir Leoline, a baritone; and Bard Bracy, a tenor. Inspired by the set design and synopsis of Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat, I am also considering the possibility of having dancers act out the roles while the singers are off to the side of the stage singing the text.

The ensemble of instrumentalists comprises flute, clarinet in B-flat/bass clarinet, string quartet, piano, 2 percussion, jazz drum set, and bass.

In the first act, the narrator introduces Christabel, the young, pure, and beautiful daughter of Sir Leoline, as she is walking by herself in the forest. Suddenly, she notices a woman lying in the forest in distress. The woman introduces herself as Geraldine, and after explaining to her that soldiers kidnapped her and then left her in the forest to die, she persuades Christabel to take care of her in her father’s castle. As she is traveling back with Christabel, weird events occur that foreshadow Geraldine being evil: she shrieks in pain as she crosses the threshold of the gate, the dog barks at her, and when they arrive to Christabel’s bedroom, she starts casting a spell on her. The first act ends with Christabel unrobed and lying in bed next to Geraldine.

The second act begins with Christabel and Geraldine waking up. Christabel brings Geraldine to her father, Sir Leoline. She then recounts the story to her father about who Geraldine is and how she was found. Sir Leoline realizes that Geraldine’s father had been a friend of his, but long ago, after a horrible altercation, they stopped speaking. Sir Leoline feels sorry for Geraldine, and out of respect for his old friend, wants to make sure Geraldine is taken care of and escorted back to her father. He summons his knight, Bard Bracy, to accompany Geraldine back to the castle. However, Bard Bracy tells Leoline of a horrible premonition he had last night: that a beautiful white dove was being strangled in the forest by a snake. Sir Leoline is so enraptured by Geraldine at this point that not only does he think the dove is Geraldine, but he also does not notice that Geraldine is casting a spell on Christabel, causing her to act strange, possessed, and snake-like. Sir Leoline is so disgusted with his daughter’s actions that he leaves her on the floor coiled up and hissing, while he escorts Geraldine out of the room.

Midnight Swim (2012) was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dave Rivello, featuring Colin Gordon on soprano saxophone.

I wrote multiple versions of my piece Midnight Swim because when I was first writing the piece, I envisioned the piece existing as an orchestral piece, a chamber piece, and also as a piece for jazz ensemble.

Splash

for big band

Splash (2011) was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dave Rivello, featuring Colin Gordon on soprano saxophone.

Overdrive

for big band

Overdrive (2010) was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dave Rivello, featuring Graham Keir on guitar, Ethan Helm on soprano saxophone, and Aaron Staebell on drums.

 

Splash

For trumpet, string quartet, vibraphone, piano, bass, and drums

I wrote multiple versions of my piece Splash because when I was first writing the piece, I envisioned the piece existing as an orchestral piece and also as a piece for jazz ensemble.

The original version of Splash was actually written for coloratura soprano and sinfonietta. I performed the soprano part on the Composers’ Sinfonietta concert in March 2011. Shortly thereafter, I created another version of the piece to be performed by the Cuong Vu Trio, titled A Walk at Dusk, where I arranged the melody in the soprano for trumpet, gave the chords to the electric bass, and allowed a lot of room for improvisation. My next version was written for the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, directed by Dave Rivello, featuring Colin Gordon on soprano saxophone. I arranged the sinfonietta version of Splash for big band, and gave the soprano melody to the soprano saxophone.

In spring 2012, Mike Kaupa asked me to arrange Splash for trumpet (with effects pedals), string quartet, vibraphone, piano, bass and drums because he wanted to perform a piece on his upcoming summer jazz faculty recital at Eastman.

TEST TEST

Works by Jennifer Bellor (b. 1983) have been featured in the United States and abroad at festivals and institutes including Aspen Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Cleveland Composers Institute of Recording, Buffalo Philharmonic Young Composers’ Readings, and the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute. Her music has been presented by performing artists and ensembles including Cuong Vu Trio, Society for New Music Vision of Sound Series and Rising Star Series; Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Percussion Ensemble, and Wind Ensemble; Volta Trio, University of Rochester Percussion Ensemble, Eastman in China tour, and many others.