Neon Museum Announces Resident Performing Artist, Composer and Musician Jennifer Bellor with Free Performances Scheduled in North Gallery April 23 – 24
On Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24, at noon and 1 p.m., the Neon Museum will host its spring performing artist in residence, UNLV Visiting Lecturer in Composition and Theory Jennifer Bellor.
Funded in part by grants from the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, this residency calls for the artist to create a project incorporating the outdoor space at the Neon Museum’s North Gallery.
Bellor’s winning proposal expressed her interest in crossing genres, combining the visual environment of the Neon Museum with her own new musical compositions and dance “to provide the audience with a completely new interpretation and stronger appreciation of the history” of Las Vegas. At the performance in the North Gallery, the audience will help her create layers of sound which will then be accompanied by a pianist, clarinetist and percussionist to compose a composition on the spot.
Jennifer Bellor is a versatile composer who enjoys collaborating with both classical and jazz musicians as well as with singers, dancers, librettists and visual artists. Her works have been performed by national and international organizations such as Washington National Opera, Lviv Philharmonic, Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, ACO Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute readings in New York City, North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, Aspen Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Saxophone Project, Nazareth College Wind Symphony, California State University East Bay Wind Orchestra, UNLV Jazz Ensemble, Florida State University Festival of New Music, Hildegard Festival, Ritsos Project in Greece and many others in the United States and abroad.
Bellor has earned numerous awards for her work including the 2015 International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Judity Lang Zaimont Prize, the 2013 DownBeat Award and the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra composition contest. Bellor’s debut album “Familiar Stranger” will be released late spring/early summer 2016 showcasing a variety of her compositions that combine contemporary jazz/classical/rock, and even hip hop. Musicians from both UNLV and Eastman School of Music are featured.
Jennifer earned a Ph.D. in music composition at Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music degree in composition at Syracuse University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music at Cornell University. Her primary composition teachers included David Liptak, Bob Morris, Andrew Waggoner, Sally Lamb-McCune and Steven Stucky.
Reservations are required for this free public event. To reserve your ticket, go to www.neonmuseum.org/happenings or call (702) 387-6366.