“Baltimore’s Sicilian Queen”, Maria Bella, is founder of Gilded Lily Burlesque. She is a producer, trumpet player and burlesque performer whose acts are a mix of classic, cabaret and neo-burlesque. She uses cultural imagery, exotic flair, fantasy and world dance technique to bring clever concepts to the stage.
She is co-producer of The Carnivalesque Roadshow, which opened for Storm Large of Pink Martini at The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts. The Carnivalesque Roadshow has been touring the East Coast for the past four years.
She has performed in various festivals around the US and internationally, including The Lyric Opera House, The Baltimore PRIDE Festival, named “Artist of the Year 2016” by the Asheville Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, Headliner at The Asheville Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, The Great Southern Exposure, Headliner at The Festival of Poe in South Carolina, The Purrrlesque Burlesque Festival, The Texas Burlesque Festival, The Show-Me Burlesque Festival, The New York Burlesque Festival, Queen category in the Southern Fried Burlesque Festival, The Toronto Burlesque Festival and was selected to perform in the 2014 London Burlesque Festival.
Her dance background includes erotica, latin, modern, jazz and world dance. She is also a model with experience in pinup, fashion, festish, concept and alternative modeling. Her musical background includes jazz, cabaret, classical, blues and soul.
In her native, Baltimore, she has entertained audiences at such venues as The Lyric Opera House, The Creative Alliance, The Ottobar, Load of Fun Theater, The Windup Space, The Hippo, The Walters Art Gallery, Ramshead Live in Annapolis and various special events, burlesque and sideshow festivals, shows and parties up and down the East Coast.
She has also performed with and toured with such talented artists as Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, Kitten Deville, The Pontani Sisters, Dirty Martini, Tigger, Armitage Shanks, The Peek-a-boo Revue, Melody Sweets, Peekaboo Pointe, Nasty Canasta, Wasabassco Burlesque, Perle Noir, Malibu, Mab Just Mab, Lil Dutch, Little Darling, Candy Mayhem, The Olde City Sideshow, and the list goes on and on.
Maria Bella has been photographed and interviewed by such magazines as Java’s Bachelor Pad Magazine, Retro Lovely Magazine, Alt Noir Magazine, Council Magazine and Retro Lovely Taboo, as well as appearances in various print and websites by clothing designers such as Gothfox Designs, Sugar Kitty Corsets, Cameo Intimates, Karen Von Oppen, Scarlet Bliss, Hello Dolly Latex, Berit New York, Collective Chaos Designs, Blu Zombie Designs, Krypta Kouture, Poison Candy Fashions and many others. She has also made headlines in the Baltimore City Paper and The Urbanite and has performed on the mainstage at Baltimore PRIDE and at the GLCCB Walter’s Art Gallery event. Maria Bella has also appeared in such books as The Kiss Book Project , TKE Expressions Pinup Book, 666 Photography Photo Book, For the Troops and the 2007 and 2008 Pinups for Pitbulls Calendar.