Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

Upcoming January 28 @ Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Alecia Batson perform the completed cycle of Mary Collins's poems. ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago
Upcoming January 28 @ Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Alecia Batson perform the completed cycle of Mary Collinss poems.

Berklee, Wed. Nov. 6 @ 4 PM! ... See MoreSee Less

2 months ago
Berklee, Wed. Nov. 6 @ 4 PM!

Something new for Juan Aguilera Cerezo. ... See MoreSee Less

2 months ago
Something new for Juan Aguilera Cerezo.Image attachment

... See MoreSee Less

2 months ago
Load more

Selected Videos

2023

The Screening Room, for stop-action video (Prelude in Eb major from op. 156, piano solo, Maja Tremiszewska, pianist)
Read more


A Brief History of Brooklyn for stop-action video (midi). Read more


2015

Gathering Music for Organ, Op. 124, by Larry Thomas Bell played on Sept. 13, 2015, at First Church Boston by Paul Cienniwa.


2014

First Piano Sonatina performed by Emelia DeJesus at the Rivers School Seminar for New Music, April 2014


2013

The Choir of First Church in Boston, Paul Cienniwa director, performs Concord Hymn from Larry Thomas Bell's Emersonia, Op. 133 in concert on January 27, 2013.


The Choir of First Church in Boston, Paul Cienniwa director, performs Give all to Love from Larry Thomas Bell's Emersonia, Op. 133 in concert on January 27, 2013.


The Choir of First Church in Boston, Paul Cienniwa director, performs Two Rivers from Larry Thomas Bell's Emersonia, Op. 133 in concert on January 27, 2013.


The Choir of First Church in Boston, Paul Cienniwa director, performs The Rhodora from Larry Thomas Bell's Emersonia, Op. 133 in concert on January 27, 2013.


2012

The Triumph of Lightness, a Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Larry Bell I. Fanfare, Sam Ou-cellist, Boston Civic Symphony, Konstantine Debrokov-conductor, November 11, 2012, Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory


Sam Ou's Cello Recital at Old South Church in Boston, MA
March 15, 2012
Larry Bell: The Black Cat (Based on a Story by Edgar Allan Poe)
Sam Ou, cello
Steve McConnell, narrator
Larry Bell, piano

THE BLACK CAT harkens back to the monodrama made popular in the nineteenth century by such Liszt melodramas as Der Traurige Monch. Richard Strauss's later monodrama Enoch Arden, recorded by Claude Reins and Glenn Gould, inspired my adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's familiar tale of murder and madness.

I augmented the monodrama's typical narrator-and-piano instrumentation to include a cello. The cello represents the cat; the piano portrays the man telling the story and also sets the climate for the individual scenes. The cello has its own leitmotifs, for example, a tritone glissando that mimics a "meow" similar to the effect found in Ravel's animal opera.

Although the narrator's part is not notated musically, I carefully connected the words with the accompanying music. Poe's characteristic blend of the horrible and the ordinary is not without moments of humor—after all, a grown man is driven crazy by an innocent small animal!

The Black Cat (1987) was commissioned by New York Philharmonic cellist Eric Bartlett and made possible by his grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He premiered the work at the 92nd Street Y in New York with myself as narrator and pianist Wu Han. Other performances include one with tonight's narrator—Steve McConnell—with cellist Andrès Díaz and pianist Michael Dewart. Bartlett recorded the piece on North/South Recordings (N/SR1018) with myself on the piano and Robert J. Lurtsema narrating. —Larry Bell


2011

Service performance of Concord Hymn, from A Unitarian Service by Larry Thomas Bell performed by the chorus of the First Church Boston, Paul Cienniwa, conductor, Sunday Oct. 30, 2011.


June 13, 2011 performance of Larry Thomas Bell's "Baroque Concerto." Soloists, Aldo Abreu, Paul Cienniwa, and Sam Ou, conducted by the composer. The orchestra is made up of NEC faculty and students. Performed at the First Church of Boston as a fringe concert of the Boston Early Music Festival.


Philip Lima and Larry Bell in concert, Sept. 15, 2011, in the first performance of "Revels", a song cycle based on poems by Ben Jonson, performed at the Berklee College of Music.


2010

Dr. Paul Cienniwa plays the Boston premiere of Larry Thomas Bell's Partita no. 1 for solo harpsichord, Sunday, March 28 at 3:00 p.m. at The First Church in Boston.


2009

Holy Ghosts the Opera, two-act opera by LARRY BELL with libretto by Andrea Olmstead based on a play by Romulus Linney. Performed at the Berklee Performance Center on September 15, 2009.


Jan. 31, 2009 - Matthew performs Dr. Larry Thomas Bell's Invention No.15 in B Minor (part of Fifteen Two-Part Inventions, Op.96) in a Contemporary Music Festival. The composer, Dr. Bell, was in the audience when all 15 inventions were played by different students. (Keller Room, New England Conservatory, Boston, Mass.)


2008

Toccata from Larry Thomas Bell's seven-movement "Liturgical Suite" recorded on the Stevens-Hall-Lahaise organ in the reverberant acoustics of Our Lady's Church in Newton, MA, performed by Richard Bunbury. The suite was professionally recorded for CD release later in 2008.


1987

[show_works]

Events

2016

Feb. 24, 2016

Hanover Theater, 10:00 a.m.
Worcester, MA
Hansel and Gretel, for narrator and orchestra
Worcester Polytechnic Orchestra, Douglas Weeks-conductor
Ballet Arts Worcester (BAW)
Ballet by Mark Harootian and Jennifer Agbay

Feb. 6, 2016

Keller Room, New England Conservatory, 3:00 p.m. Fifteen Three-Part Sinfonias, op. 127 (First Complete Performance) For solo harpsichord or piano Members of the A. R. Rivera piano seminar

Jan. 31, 2016

First Church Boston, 11:00 a.m. 88.9 FM. WERS.org Emerson College Radio 9 Variations on “We Shall Overcome” for piano solo (First Performance) Larry Bell, pianist

Jan. 25, 2016

David Friend Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m. Berklee College of Music Prayers for piano solo, op. 135 (First Performance) Larry Bell-pianist

2015

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

Bell’s music is published by Universal Edition, Casa Rustica Publications, and Ione Press, a division of ECS publishing.