Maria Corley
Her Story
Although most of her life has been focused on performing, Maria Thompson Corley (BM,
University of Alberta; MM, DMA, piano, The Juilliard School) began composing and arranging
as a child. Her works have been commissioned by Odell Hobbs (Florida A&M University);
Darryl Taylor, countertenor; Louise Toppin, Sequina Dubose and Randye Jones, sopranos; Dr.
Buddy James (California State East Bay University), Jillian Harrison-Jones (MUSE:
Cincinnati's Women's Choir), Julia Carey (Juventas New Music Ensemble) and Daniel
Rowland, tuba, among others. Her arrangement of "Mary had a Baby" was published by
Walton; her song cycle, For Terry, is published by Classical Vocal Reprints, and her choral
works “When all Falls Silent” and “Ain’t Got Time to Die” are published by NoteNova. Her song
cycle Grasping Water was added to the curricula at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Jackdaws
Music Education Trust in the U.K., and University of California (Irvine). Three of her Four Foxy
Fables appear in Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs. She was
one of just two composers to have multiple songs chosen for the same volume of the series.
Her solo piano piece, “Lucid Dreaming,” a semi-finalist in the 2021 international Fidelio competition,
is among several of her works included in the 2021 release, Soulscapes 2. “Helicity,” for trumpet and
piano, won the instrumental category of the international AMSONIA competition later that year. Her
music is recorded on Albany, MSR Classics and Parma/Navona, whose 2022 release, Soul Sanctuary, is
a collection of her arrangements of spirituals, performed by the composer and soprano Maria Clark,
featuring cellist Ismail Akbar. “Sanctuary,” a piano transcription of two of her spiritual arrangements,
was choreographed by Katlyn Addison, a principal ballerina with Utah’s Ballet West, and debuted by
members of the Kansas City Ballet in March, 2022.
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In June, 2020, she had the honor of appearing on a panel with legendary baritone, Thomas
Hampson. On July 4 of that year, her new art song, “Big Yellow Taxi” was featured on the
Hampsongs Foundation website. Her short-form opera The Sky Where You Are, with a
libretto by Jenny O’Connell, premiered in October, 2020 as part of The Decameron Opera
Coalition’s award-winning virtual series of series Tales from a Safe Distance, which has been
added to the collection at the Library of Congress. The Place, a second opera short for DOC’s
subsequent online production, Heroes, with a libretto by Sandra Oyinloye, was commissioned
by Lyric Opera of the North. Among her future projects is an oratorio inspired by the life of
John Lewis, for which she librettist Diana Solomon-Glover were recently awarded an Opera
America IDEA grant. She was also commissioned by the Canadian Art Song Project to write a
song cycle for soprano Jonelle Sills, to texts by the composer, Kanika Ambrose, and
Christene A. Browne. Both projects are scheduled to debut in 2022.
An Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, Dr. Corley was one of ten composers
chosen for the 2020-21 American National Association of Teachers of Singing mentorship
program. In 2021-22, she was asked to become a mentor in the same program. Her music
has been performed by such luminaries as mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis and
soprano Nadine Benjamin.