Jennifer Bellor

Visit article here: http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/2014/11/10/meet-unlv-professor-jennifer-bellor/

Here is an audio recording of “Noir” on the SWOJO website: http://swojo.org/contest_results.html?

After Hours (2014) for solo drum set was commissioned by drummer Aaron Staebell and premiered on his showcase at the 2014 Rochester Fringe Festival, September 21, 2014 at Bernunzio Uptown in Rochester, NY. This is a video recording form the premiere.

I am thrilled to announce that I will have the opportunity to share my music with the Seattle Jazz Women’s Orchestra November 3rd and 4th, featuring Grace Kelly on alto saxophone! My composition Noir was selected as the 2014 winner of the annual SWOJO Composition Contest. The honorable mention went to Jihye Lee for her composition “Deep Blue Sea.” http://swojo.org/contest_results.html

The judges were SWOJO’s guest artist, Grace Kelly http://www.gracekellymusic.com, Juno award winning jazz composer Christine Jensen http://www.christinejensenmusic.com/, and our music director, Daniel Barry: http://swojo.org/players.html.

Here is some feedback from the judges on “Noir”:

– “Strongest compositionally. This piece reminds me of Ornette’s collaboration with Howard Shore for the film Naked Lunch.”

– “Really beautiful and haunting. Reminded me of some Maria Schneider pieces and Billy Childs arrangements I’ve heard.”

– “Strongest compositionally with a contemporary big band approach to it.”

Here is a link to the recording “Noir” that I submitted for this contest. “Noir” was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble.

The Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra will perform it as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival. The concert is on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 at the Triple Door in Seattle, WA.

At the 2014 Rochester Fringe Festival, Aaron Staebell will feature world premieres by 15 contemporary composers who were commissioned to write new works for the drum set. Written works will be interspersed with improvisations by Staebell, who is known for his unique, engaging performances – this presentation of brand new music should be no different.

When Aaron approached me about writing a drumset solo for him to perform at the Fringe Festival, he told me his goal was to collect a number of pieces for solo drumset that are NOT stylized in a jazz, rock or latin context, learn them, perform them, submit them to workshops/conferences and maybe eventually publish a collection of these works. I jumped at the opportunity to write a piece him him, not only because I have felt honored to collaborate with him on so many of my composition projects, but also because I continually want to learn more about writing for drumset.

Solo Drum Solo
Aaron Staebell, drums
Bernunzio Uptown Music
September 21st and 22nd, 6pm
Rochester, NY
Tickets: $10

Visit the Fringe Festival page: http://rochesterfringe.com/shows/show/solo-drum-solo

 
The Eastman Saxophone Project (ESP) premiered Skylark Lullaby at the NASA Conference March 2014 at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign, and also performed it at the Eastman School of Music in April 2014. Chien-Kwan Lin asked me to compose a piece for ESP last August, and I was extremely excited for the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group!
 

 

The main material of Skylark Lullaby came from a melody at the beginning of my opera Duffy’s Cut. I often like to create different versions of a piece, since I usually it in different ways. While I was writing the opera, I knew I wanted to reuse some of this material to create a new piece for saxophone choir.
 
For more information on purchasing the score and parts, please contact me.
 

This is a live recording of my composition Electric Vortex performed by the Eastman Wind Orchestra, December 13, 2013, under the direction of Jared Chase, featuring the jazz band “Bending and Breaking” based in Rochester, NY:

Wills McKenna, tenor saxophone
Wendy Eisenberg, electric guitar
Matt Krols, electric bass
Aaron Staebell, drums

I enjoy writing music for both jazz and classical musicians, and many of my compositions over the last three years have showcased these musicians performing together. When conductor Jared Chase approached me over the summer about writing a piece for both the Eastman Wind Orchestra and the Nazareth Wind Symphony to perform, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to write a piece for wind ensemble featuring the local jazz band, Bending and Breaking led by drummer Aaron Staebell. I envisioned writing a wind ensemble piece featuring Aaron’s band ever since he premiered my composition Uprising (2012) with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

I wrote Electric Vortex to showcase this collaboration. I was inspired by powerful images I found online of an electric vortex, and envisioned the improvisation group to be the ‘eye’ in this powerful whirlwind.

Electric Vortex was written for a consortium of 10 ensembles, and was premiered by the Nazareth Wind Symphony under the direction of Jared Chase. For the premiere at Nazareth, I created a special version of the piece, where I wrote specific parts for students in the wind symphony who also played jazz: Jake Wark, tenor sax; Matt Bevan-Perkins, vibraphone; Tori Valente, congas.