Olga Bell
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Olga Bell | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Olga Balashova |
| Born | October 3, 1983 Moscow, Russia |
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| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels | One Little Indian Records
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| Website | bellinspace |
Olga Bell (born October 3, 1983) is an American musician, electronic music producer, composer and singer-songwriter. Bell was born in Moscow, Russia, raised in Anchorage, Alaska and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
Early life
Bell started playing the piano at age seven, after moving with her mother from Moscow to Alaska, and made her public debut two years later.[1] Bell’s primary piano teacher was Svetlana Velichko, a former Moscow Conservatory professor and Samuel Feinberg student. Bell performed an original composition for piano and orchestra with her hometown Anchorage Symphony at age twelve, and at sixteen she was a concerto soloist with the Anchorage Civic Orchestra.[2]While still in high school, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and School on a scholarship.[3] As a chamber musician, Bell was also fellow of The Banff Centre and Yale’s Norfolk Festival, where she studied with Claude Frank and members of the Juilliard, Tokyo and St. Petersburg String Quartets.[1]
Career
In August 2005, after graduating from the New England Conservatory, Bell moved to New York City, bought a laptop and started recording herself, singing into the built-in mic and making beats.[1] From 2005 to 2010, Bell taught piano lessons and accompanied theater auditions while receiving a kind of secondary education around the city’s open mics and in studios, developing a live show, forming a band, self-producing and self-releasing an EP (2008) and the full-length album Diamonite (2011).
Her voice has been heralded as “lustrous” Consequence of Sound[4] and “powerful” The New York Times.[5] She has also been noted by The New York Times for her "bubbly, glitchy electronic pop songs."[6] She’s remixed Chairlift, Son Lux and Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita.[7] In 2009 she was selected by composer Osvaldo Golijov and soprano Dawn Upshaw for a workshop and concert at Carnegie Hall.[8]
In 2011 she received the a Jerome Fund Grant from the American Composers Forum, to aid in the completion of her first large-scale composition Krai.[5] The album was released to critical acclaim in 2014 after a sold-out premiere at the Walker Art Center[9] in Minneapolis. Since its premiere the piece has been reprised in Bell’s original electro-acoustic arrangement for twelve musicians, as well as a version for solo voice with orchestra. Krai was considered "fresh and new" by the Telegraph.[10]
Olga Bell makes original music, remixes and videos under her own name. As half of Nothankyou, she makes dance music with British musician Tom Vek. In 2013 she directed a video for the group’s single Oyster.[11] From 2011 to 2013 Bell toured as a vocalist and keyboardist with Chairlift and Dirty Projectors.[12]
On July 21, 2015 Bell released a new single from an EP called Incitation. On August 12, 2015 she released a video for another EP track, “Goalie”, which she co-directed with Christina Ladwig.[13] The video received its premiere on Nowness.[14]
Discography
| Title | Release details |
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| Incitation EP |
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| Krai Album |
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| Know Yourself / Oyster Single | Nothankyou
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| Dialtone Single | BELL
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| Diamonte Album |
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| EP |
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References
- ^ a b c "The Muse of Ice: Olga Bell". Paganwood. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ Dinitz, Ken (15 November 1999). "PIANIST TAKES CIVIC ORCHESTRA TO NEW HEIGHTS". Alaska Dispatch News. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Rubtsov, Andrey (9 November 2000). "Tsar's Tower Orchestra". AndreyRubtsov. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Mojica, Frank (15 June 2011). "Bell Diamonite". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ a b Anderson, Stacey (30 April 2014). "Breaking From Her Norm to Connect With Her Tradition". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ Smith, Steve (4 March 2011). "Skipping Through Russia, Lingering in a Biblical Age". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ Brown, Hannis (26 December 2013). "An 8-Week Series of World Premiere Remixes of Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Partita'". WQXR. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Kozzin, Allan (11 May 2009). "Composers and Performers, Together as Creators". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ "Olga Bell: Origin/Outcome". Walker Art Centre. 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ Brown, Helen (23 April 2014). "Olga Bell, Krai, Review: 'Fresh and Challenging'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ McGovern, Kyle (19 September 2013). "Dirty Projectors' Olga Bell Plays Dress-Up in Nothankyou's 'Oyster' Video". SPIN. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Wood, Makael (25 July 2012). "Dirty Projector Swings to a Different Spirit in New Album". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ Staff, Economic Voice (18 August 2015). "Olga Bell - Goalie". The Economic Voice. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Wignall, James (12 August 2015). "Olga Bell: Goalie". Nowness. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
Further Reading
Interviews
- Olga Bell BELL (Music Fashion Magazine, 2009)
- An Interview with Olga Bell (American Composers Forum, 2014)
- Interview with Olga Bell (MaxTotskywillbreakyourlegs, 20014)
- Olga Bell (The Great Discontent, 2012)
- Interview: Olga Bell (Loud And Quiet, 2014)
- “Reckoning with my Russianness”: Olga Bell on Origin/Outcome (Walker Art Center, 2014)
- Nika Danilova (Zola Jesus) Talks Olga Bell’s Krai (The Talk House, 2014)