Biography

Jesse Gelaznik is a new music composer, visual artist, and founder of the New York based performance art collective Dirty Churches. His music blends layered synthesizers with analog tape samples, vocals, and acoustic instruments. His new opera “MISCHIEF” with a libretto by Britt Hewitt will be featured as one of the “FIVE WAYS TO DIE”, an Experiments in Opera production with a workshop rehearsal at the Harlem School of the Arts on November 10th and a full premiere summer 2024. Jesse’s newest immersive sound walk titled “SEMBRICH SOUND TRAILS” invites the listener into a musical fantasy, via their smartphone, as they walk the trails of the Sembrich Opera Museum, creating an experience that blends technology with poetry, music, nature, and the human voice. He also composed “CUBES AND ANARCHY – A HOMAGE TO DAVID SMITH” for the HUB new music quartet, which premiered in July of 2023. Inspired by the 1964 interview with David Smith, commissioned for the “Trail Blazers - A Tribute to David Smith” series by the Sembrich Opera Museum and Hyde Museum. His improvisational music was the live soundtrack for the Dirty Churches performances “SNAKE MAN” and “RAVEN” at WhiteBox in NYC for the opening and closing of their exhibition “Ballots Not Bullets” in 2022. Jesse’s sound design and musical composition was featured as the multi-channel audio component of Andréa Stanislav’s immersive installation “SURMATANTS – MARS RISING” at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. in 2021, which was released on vinyl. Jesse’s video opera “RUMPLES” also premiered at the Mattress Factory Museum and was later exhibited at WhiteBox for their group exhibition “Perfect Day”. His first immersive sound walk “SOUND TRAILS” was exhibited at the White Rock Center for Sculptural Arts Summer Invitational IV “Collage/Assemblage” in August of 2022. In 2019 Jesse composed and conducted the music for the Dirty Churches opera titled “ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS” at La MaMa Galleria. His music for experimental theater was also featured in the play “The ARTS” that opened in La MaMa’s main theater for their 2018 season. His music for the film H. premiered at Sundance in 2014 and was later shown at the MoMA. Jesse’s experimental music collaboration with film director Daniel Garcia titled “PWR&$$$” was commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation for their Biennial X and later exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2012. As a visual artist Jesse’s illustrations have been called “stunning” and “eye catching” by the New York Times in 2020 for Theater in Quarantine’s “Footnote for the End of Time”. Jesse also played guitar for Glenn Branca’s Symphony 13 “Hallucination City”.

Press

New York Times - Review: Bringing Borges to Life in ‘Footnote for the End of Time’ (illustrator)

Times Union - Classical Notes: The marriage of art, music at the Hyde (composer)

La MaMa Blogs, 6 Questions - Jesse Gelaznik (composer)

Variety - H. Film Review (composer)

Hollywood Reporter - H.’ Sundance Review (composer)

Good Art News - Andréa Stanislav (composer)

STEREOGUM - I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – “You Are Dead To Me” Video” (film director)

Huffington Post - Short Films, Live Score (composer)

Vice - Be a Guest in the Cavern (composer)

Vice - Life Inside the Dome (blog entry)

Vice - Blue Moon Burlesque (blog entry)

Vice - Advice to a Young Man from an Old Man Twice Married (illustrator)