Jennifer Bellor

Getting ready to record the harmonium and toy piano parts for one of my songs! "Lulling Charities" will be premiered (pre-recorded) with Lotte Reiniger's animated short "Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens" (1919) at the Oct. 2nd UNLV Nextet concert 🎼🎹💕#composer #filmscoring #playing #homestudio #musicalartist #collaboration #silentfilm

A post shared by Jennifer Bellor (@jkbellor) on Sep 16, 2017 at 5:47pm PDT

Written for and inspired by Lotte Reiniger’s animated short film “Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens” (1919)
Voice, electric guitar, harmonium and electronics
Music, lyrics and voice by Jennifer Bellor
Electric guitar w/improv and mixing/editing by Phil Joy
Duration: 3 minutes

Will be premiered at the October 2 Nextet Concert at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 7:30pm, Doc Rando

Lulling Charities is a song I wrote that is not only inspired by and can be featured with Lotte Reiniger’s animated short, but is also written for my new concept album “To Sleep.” The title of the song is taken from the poem “To Sleep” by John Keats. While writing the music/lyrics, I envision a dream where the character wakes up to a world where hearts grow on trees. Ingesting these hearts will give one a hallucination of euphoria and intense feelings for the person with whom the heart is shared. Like every hallucination, however, it could be short-lived and reality could set in sooner than we want, perhaps leaving the couple heart-broken from any issues that can arise in a relationship. For this couple, however, despite the pain that occurs, they are able to prevail because love for one another is strong and can “withstand the test of time.”

Mics are set up for the harmonium!! (pump organ) @jkbellor is getting some practice in before we finish up tracking for "Lulling Charities" #harmonium #mc930 #rme #recordingsession #composer #musicalartist

A post shared by Phil Joy (@phil.joy) on Sep 17, 2017 at 2:44pm PDT

Crystalline (2017) for two pianos and percussion was premiered Sunday, July 2nd in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music on the program “Sonic Clusters II” produced by pianists Olga Shupyatskaya and Futaba Niekawa:

Olga Shupyatskaya and Futaba Niekawa, pianos
Matt Witten and Chris Jones, percussion

The composition is inspired by the fusion of natural elements resulting in the creation of these beautiful crystal-like patterns/structures found in nature. In Crystalline, the pattern is a melody line that is first heard in its entirety by the vibraphone. Throughout the piece, the interplay among the instruments evokes images of these elements coming together and breaking a part as the structure is formed, creating a sparkly, crystal-like atmosphere.

Also available on SoundCloud:

My first music video! I can’t thank Zen Ritual enough for their creative vision in producing “I’ll Not Weep,” the first song from my EP “Songs in the Dark.” I have always dreamed of someday collaborating with videographers to evoke the feelings and atmosphere I had in mind for the music I was creating. The whole process was really fun and it gave me an opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone, remove myself from the composer role and be open to what Allen and Petrina envisioned for the film. I look forward to many more collaborations with them!

Creative Music Video produced by Allen Muresan and Petrina Olson of Zen Ritual Creative Services LLC

Jennifer Bellor’s song “I’ll Not Weep” from her EP “Songs in the Dark”
text by Emily Brontë (181801848)

Jennifer Bellor, voice
Christina Wright-Ivanova, piano
Jason Corpuz, synth
Summer Kodama, electric bass

Ron George, recording and mixing at UNLV
Chuck Foley, recording at UNLV
Gil Kaupp, mastering

“Stanzas” by Emily Brontë

I’ll not weep that thou art going to leave me,
There’s nothing lovely here;
And doubly will the dark world grieve me,
While thy heart suffers there.

I’ll not weep, because the summer’s glory
Must always end in gloom;
And, follow out the happiest story—
It closes with a tomb!

And I am weary of the anguish
Increasing winters bear;
Weary to watch the spirit languish
Through years of dead despair.

So, if a tear, when thou art dying,
Should haply fall from me,
It is but that my soul is sighing,
To go and rest with thee.

"I'll Not Weep" by Jennifer Bellor from EP… by jennifer-bellor

Fusing contemporary art song with pop and alternative rock, Songs in the Dark is a musical exploration into the dark, haunting and evocative poetry of Emily Brontë (1818-1848) and John Donne (1572-1631).

Credits

Jennifer Bellor, composer and singer
Christina Wright-Ivanova, piano
Jason Corpuz, synth
Summer Kodama, electric bass

Ron George, mixing at UNLV
Chuck Foley, recording at UNLV
Gil Kaupp, mastering

Zen Ritual Creative Services, album cover photo

Check out Songs in the Dark on CD BABY

Songs in the Dark will be available on ITunes, Amazon, and Spotify June 21, 2017.

Two music videos for I’ll Not Weep and Fall, Leaves, Fall will be produced by Zen Ritual Creative Services and released late Summer/ early Fall 2017.

For more information, visit SONGS IN THE DARK

On Sunday, July 2 at 7:30pm in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, pianists Olga Shupyatskaya and Futaba Niekawa will be premiering my composition Crystalline for two piano and two percussion. Joining them will be Matt Witten and Chris Jones. This will be an exciting concert, not only to hear fabulous performances, but also to reconnect with alumni friends and colleagues. Click here to see the Eastman press release

When Olga approached me back in December about writing a piece for them, I envisioned a composition that would be inspired by crystals with the piano and bell-like percussion instruments (vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales, triangles) mixing together. It is more or less a theme and variations based off of an order of pitches to represent the process of building a crystal as all of the pitches are eventually introduced in the vibraphone part. I created a line that not only provides melodic/thematic material, but also influences the harmony:

The vibraphone primarily plays the line over and over again. At then at the end of the piece, it is is retrograde before it moves forward once again. The textures in both of the piano parts and the second percussion part using bell-like and metallic sounds all work together to create a sparkling, crystal-like atmosphere very much inspired by
both Chick Corea’s “Crystal Silence” and Bjork’s “Crystalline.”

The UNLV Wind Orchestra album “The Return” has now been released! Thrilled that my composition “Bordello Nights” is included on the album. It was such a wonderful collaboration with Tom Leslie and the UNLV Wind Orchestra, Eric Marienthal, Colin Gordon, Mitchel Forman, Kevin Axt, and Bernie Dresel 🎼😊🎧🎷🎸

Here are links to some of the reviews from Fanfare Magazine:
Review by Huntley Dent:
http://fanfarearchive.com/ntbm/articles/leslie-int-dent.html

Review by Henry Fogel:
http://fanfarearchive.com/ntbm/articles/leslie-fogel.html

The premiere of the revised version of “898 Hildegard” went incredibly well, and it was such an honor to work with the Las Vegas Philharmonic under the direction of Donato Cabrera and the Las Vegas Master Singers under the direction of David Weiller. Moreover, it was wonderful to have the opportunity to share my music with so many of my very talented friends, colleagues, and students who were performing it. I’m so happy my parents were able to fly in to be with me for this very special night! 💞🎼🎶🎻

Had a blast with KNPR’s Dave Becker to discuss my composition “898 Hildegard” that will receive its Las Vegas premiere April 1st with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Master Singers! 😊
Interview is scheduled to air Thursday, March 30th.
Here is a link to the audio online:
https://knpr.org/knpr-classical/2017-03/jennifer-bellors-898-hildegard-premieres-las-vegas-philharmonic

Check out some of the photos from the March 28th rehearsal with Las Vegas Philharmonic conductor Donato Cabrera and the Las Vegas Master Singers:

This past weekend, I was thrilled to be in San Francisco to meet with the Elevate Ensemble and be at their concert on Saturday March 4th titled “After Dark.” Back in December, I found out that I won their Elevate Ensemble Call for Scores competition, and was so honored to hear they wanted to perform my composition Moments Shared, Moments Lost for clarinet and electric organ.

I arrived on Friday for their rehearsal, and was blown away by the performance! Featuring clarinetist Jonathan Szin and Nick Bacchetto on electric organ, it was a very moving interpretation of the piece. Here are some photos of the performance and also of me talking about my composition.

We explored San Francisco in between the concert and rehearsals, going to lots of coffee shops and even was able to fit in a 90-minute sail around Alcatraz!

The Missouri State University 2017 Composition Festival was February 27-March 1 featuring two wonderful concerts with a wide variety of new music! Directed by faculty composer Mike Murray, I was thrilled to be the guest composer along with Lansing D. McLoskey, and had a blast meeting with the performers, faculty, and students.

Monday’s concert featured chamber works by the guest composers and students on the first half of the program. My composition Stay (2016) was performed by clarinetist Allison Storochuk, pianist Peter Collins, and Scott Cameron on vibraphone. It was a beautiful performance, and a pleasure meeting them!

Tuesday, I really enjoyed working with the students in a master class followed by giving a presentation of my music, sharing compositions Chase the Stars, Moments Shared, Moments Lost, Air and Angels, and excerpts from Bordello Nights.

Wednesday’s concert featured the MSU Chorale conducted by Cameron LaBarr. I was blown away by their performance of Remember, one of the earliest compositions I wrote that I revised back in 2015, which sets the poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) titled Remember.

Here is a photo of the composers (and conductor) after the show. It was an honor to be invited to be guest composer for this festival, and I look forward to many more opportunities to make new musical connections with composers and performers!