mɔɹnɪŋ (the phonetic spelling for the words “morning” and “mourning”) is an experimental music-theatre work by singer and composer Gelsey Bell. The piece traces the weeks, months, years, and millennia following humanity’s disappearance from Earth.

Bell will be joined by an ensemble of five vocalists/multi-instrumentalists, including original cast members Aviva Jaye and Paul Pinto, and touring cast members Brian McCorkle and Mia Pak.

The work guides the audience through changes on Earth as forests grow back, new species evolve, and the human-made world erodes away. Inspired by Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us, the performance combines whimsical storytelling with breathtaking music, illustrating the profound resilience of nature. It invites the audience to reflect on their connection to the planet, offering a hopeful glimpse into a post-human future where nature flourishes in ways that are both awe-inspiring and unexpected.

“Sly and sweet, wistful and winsome and altogether lovable… Gelsey Bell’s wonderful, uncategorizable guide to what might unfold on Earth in the millions and billions of years after human history”– The New York Times

“Bell’s music brings together extended techniques and electronics with a folksy melodic sensibility, all anchored by her wily, surprising poetry… mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] is both playful and serious, funny and biting, alien and marvelously human.” – The New York Times

“A dazzling, uncategorizable work …that spans geologic time…Part scientific exposition, part imaginative flight of fancy” — The Wall Street Journal

“From its astounding temporal and emotional scope, perfectly calibrated libretto and delicious vocal writing, this piece felt devastating, funny, wistful and impossible to pin down.” —The Observer

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.

Gelsey Bell (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary performance creator, composer, and vocalist. Her recent works include the experimental opera mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] (2023), commissioned by the HERE Arts Center and presented in the Prototype Festival; Cairns (2020), a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery; the musical one-act “Archaeopteris” (2025), commissioned by Wet Ink; and thingNY’s collaboratively written opera Mouthful (2024). She is the Co-Artistic Director of thingNY and Varispeed. She has released multiple albums, including the recent mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning], Skylighght, and Heads Together. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Japan Foundation, NYSCA, and others. Performance highlights also include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Celestial Excursions and Foreign Experiences, Darius Jones’s Samesoul Maker, Alaina Ferris’s The Lydian Gale Parr, Aaron Siegel’s Rainbird, and other works by Jay Afrisando, Kate Soper, Tomomi Adachi, Brent Michael Davids, and others.