Ashley’s work explores the blurry, shifting line between talking and singing, the immense musical possibilities of text and paralinguistics, and a distinctive compositional approach to spinning a tale, singing a tune, ranting a philosophy, and building collaboration.
Gelsey Bell, Brian McCorkle, and Dave Ruder will lead an interactive workshop exploring Ashley’s specific theories of the voice, his unique singing techniques, his scores and notational practices, and the methodologies used to perform his vocal works. Open to all levels of musicial experience, participants will be invited to vocalize, though they are also welcome to join as only spectator-listeners.
Bell, McCorkle, and Ruder have been performing Ashley’s work since 2011, including originating roles in Ashley’s finale opera, Crash, in 2014; performing in many of the revivals of his work such as Improvement, Foreign Experiences, and Celestial Excursions; and co-founding the performance collective Varispeed, which specializes in new arrangements of Ashley’s work including their site-specific Perfect Lives.
“I am completely knowable in every way” – Robert Ashley, “The Park,” Perfect Lives
*FREE FOR ALL ROULETTE MEMBERS *
A livestream will be available and archived for future viewing.
Gelsey Bell (she/they) is a multidisciplinary performance creator, composer, vocalist, and scholar. Her recent works include the experimental opera mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning], the soundwalk Cairns for Green-Wood Cemetery, and the musical one-act Archaeopteris. She is the Co-Artistic Director of thingNY and Varispeed. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, 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 Improvement, Darius Jones’s Samesoul Maker, Alaina Ferris’s The Lydian Gale Parr, and Aaron Siegel’s Rainbird. She has a PhD in Performance Studies, teaches at the New School, and is the program director for the MM Performer-Composer program. gelseybell.com
Brian McCorkle (he/they) is a composer, performer, and digital artist, as well as former co-Director of the opera company and venue Panoply Performance Laboratory, and a founding member of Varispeed. McCorkle performs regularly as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, flouting genre while drawing from decades of experience as a professional musician in a wide variety of contexts. Recent Roulette performances include Robert Ashley’s Foreign Experiences, Jeffrey Schanzer’s The Past is Present and Varispeed’s collaboration with Peggy Weil, The Blurring Test. brianmccorkle.work
Dave Ruder (he/they) is a musician based in Brooklyn. Dave’s work lives at the intersection of the very ephemeral, the very stupid, the very articulate, the very repetitive, and the very subtle. Over the years, Dave has worked as a vocalist, clarinetist, guitarist, composer/songwriter, electronic musician, etc, though Dave has had Long Covid since 2020 and hasn’t been able to play instruments in recent years. Much of Dave’s work is done collaboratively as a member of the groups Varispeed, thingNY, Thee Reps, and Florida Lucid Dreaming. Dave has also released numerous solo albums in different styles on Gold Bolus Recordings, a label he founded and has managed since 2014. daveruder.com
