BY THE BRIDGE

WHO IS "BY THE BRIDGE"?

LONG BEFORE MEETING THROUGH MUTUAL FRIENDS IN NEW YORK TWO YEARS AGO, KURT GELLERSTED AND BROOKE FOX HAD BOTH DISCOVERED MUSIC AND MADE IT THEIR LIFE'S PASSION.

KURT GELLERSTED has always enjoyed the art of spinning several different musical plates. A native of Chicago, he spent his youth performing in the usual run of High School and Community theatre productions. But Kurt also spent his teen years playing drums, writing songs and singing in punk/art-rock bands like Birdfeeder and Plane Rides for Five Minute Drives. They played all-ages shows alongside area legends Cap’n Jazz, Friction, Gauge, and Braid. Several infamous hand-pressed cassette tapes were recorded and distributed from the garage-turned-practice space in his parents’ suburban home.

Kurt then pursued a Degree in Vocal Performance and Composition at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, world-renown for its focus on Choral music. Between traditional orchestration and theory classes, Kurt would jot down lyric ideas and play acoustic guitar in his dorm room. While on summer break in 1997, he hand-recorded his first solo album on a 4-track recorder, a folksy/rock record called the "The Cat Hair Chair".

Then it was on to NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education for Kurt’s Graduate studies in Music Composition where he studied with Dr. Justin Dello Joio. In the spring of 2002, NYU’s University Singers, a 23-person orchestra and NYU Faculty soloists premiered Kurt's 8-movement "Requiem". Upon hearing the piece, Luther College Choir Director Weston Noble hailed, "Bravo! A gifted orchestrator. I was drawn to it." The "Requiem" world premiere recording is available on CD and has since been featured on NPR's "Theme and Variations".

Since receiving his M.F.A. in Music Composition in May 2002, Kurt has premiered two new chamber works at Merkin Concert Hall, recorded his second self-released pop/rock record "Scribble Scrabble", interned for The Lion Kings’ Music Director/Principal Conductor Joseph Church and embarked on a 10-city tour with avant-garde Cellist/Composer Erik Friedlander. His work with Friedlander began in late 2002 when Kurt was hired to assist Erik while he scored a four-part PBS documentary. Kurt has since assisted Erik’s work on jingles, recording sessions and transcription projects.

In March 2005, Kurt landed an internship at Man Made Music, a busy post-production house in Midtown. The experience tuned his ear to the very specific world of writing for television. His underscoring work can be heard on NBC’s “Martha Stewart Show”, BRAVO’s “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List”, and ABC’s “The One”. In June of 2007, Kurt produced the theme song for a pilot episode of “Family Values” starring The Daily Show’s Rob Riggle. Julia Murney (Wicked, Wild Party) came in to sing vocals at Gellersted’s Brooklyn studio. The project screened as part of the 2007 NY Television Festival. In July of 2007, his first major theme song aired with the new season of “Bizarre Foods” on the Travel Channel.

Since 2002, Kurt has been collaborating with bookwriter Will Brumley and compeer/lyricist Brooke Fox on several musical theatre projects. Most recently, he wrote music for Williamsburg! The Musical which sold out four of its five show run at the Village Theatre as part of the 2007 NY International Fringe Festival. Frank Scheck of the NYPost hailed the shows “Witty Songs” and the show took home a Fringe NYC Overall Excellence Award for Music and Lyrics.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

2007 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award – Music & Lyrics for “Williamsburg! The Musical”

ASCAPlus Award, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

NYU Graduate Student Composer of the Year Award, 2002

The Weston Noble Vocal Music Scholarship, 1996-2000

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ABOUT BROOKE FOX

With a “strong yet vulnerable” set of songs drawing mentions to The Sundays, Patty Griffin and Ricky Lee Jones, Brooklyn songwriter Brooke Fox’s effortless vocals and direct lyrics draw a decidedly optimistic reality of relationships and human response. Her second self-produced record, “BREATHE THE SAME AIR” released July 2005, was a best seller on CDBaby and recently took home third place for Female Singer/Songwriter Album at the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards.

The record first took shape in Fox’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn basement studio with husband and fellow musician Kurt Gellersted. Of the 10 new songs, almost half of them are collaborations, marking a shift in Fox’s once-private universe of writing. The result is a more worldly, mature and tempered set of songs, where the prevailing theme is the “rush of falling in love”. The album opens with “Cinematic”, a grand, pulsating rock anthem and homage to the “movie-moments” in everyday life. Beautifully soaked in nostalgia, “Breathe The Same Air” is a waltzy lullaby, detailing the discovery of a lover’s well-preserved childhood room.

On first glance, the strikingly pale Fox, glowing under the stage lights, is simply fair-skinned but her lilywhite features are actually albinism, a rare genetic trait that also causes legal blindness and sensitivity to light. Brooke has spoken to schools and community groups about albinism and made major press appearances (Fox News, CNN, KROQ) on behalf of NOAH (The National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation) to raise awareness in the face of the motion picture release of The Da Vinci Code which marks the 68th “Evil Albino” character to appear in cinema since 1960.

“’Change Me’…is the ghost of Christina Olsen (of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World”) speaking through me”, says Fox. After researching the back-story, Fox discovered Christina’s incredible courage though her body was slowly degenerating from an unknown illness. Inspired on countless levels, the song rings with dignity and character. “Christina was the one degree of separation I needed to finally write and sing about my own disability for the first time”.

Remarkably, little 5-year-old Brooke seemed to thrive in the bright flood of the spotlight, performing through her childhood years in Northern California. Fox’s obsession with song craft was founded early. She began creating her own music in front of the Fox family piano at the age of eight and went on to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. She then relocated to Nashville after graduation and recorded her first album “NightLight” in 1999 before heading to New York in 2000.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

06' Just Plain Folks Award: #3 "Female Singer / Songwriter Album", CDBABY #53 Best Seller: 8/05, ‘04-‘05-'06 ASCAPlus Award, ‘04 Great American Song Contest: Honor Award, ‘04 Just Plain Folks Award: “Best Vocal Jazz Song”, ‘03 Billboard Song Contest: Honorable Mention (two songs), Lilith Fair Acoustic Talent Search: Nashville Finalist, Berklee Songwriting Achievement Award.