composer, singer, songwriter

Past Performances

06/14/2015 at 2pm

Last Words from Texas performed at the  Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX

Event Description: Inspired by the exhibition Wildly Strange: The Photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, this installment of SoundSpace features output by musicians who worked outside the mainstream. Highlighting insurance salesmen, soldiers, scientists, architects, and autodidacts, this program will examine how these varied backgrounds led to experimentation and new musical approaches.

04/10/2015 at 10pm

OK It’s Not OK performed at The North Door > 502 Brushy Street Austin, TX.
This event is part of Fusebox’s 2015 Featured Projects series.

02/07/2015 at 8pm

OK It’s Not OK album release concert

$12 general admission

Doors: 07:00 pm / Show: 08:00 pm

$12 in advance / $15 day of performance

For tickets, go to http://subculturenewyork.com/event/coreydargelalbumrelease/

Featuring Corey Dargel, Cornelius Dufallo, James Moore, Eleonore Oppenheim, and Wil Smith.

Corey Dargel is a Texas-born, Brooklyn-based composer and singer-songwriter whose gentle assault on pop and classical idioms creates a tension that pervades his music.  The New Yorker calls Dargel “a baroquely unclassifiable” composer “of ingenious nouveau art songs.” Minnesota Public Radio singles him out as “a wonderfully difficult artist to define.”  According to theNew York Times, “Dargel [is] one of the more original and consistently provocative artists pushing at the margins of modern classical music and adventurous pop.” New York magazine says, “His ghostly baritone, precise delivery, and transfixing stage presence transform his performances into intimate plumbings of the audience’s psyche.”

Dargel’s most recent commercial album, Someone Will Take Care of Me (2010, New Amsterdam Records), is a double-CD set of song cycles adapted from his critically acclaimed music-theater pieces about hypochondria and voluntary amputation. WNYC’s New Sounds deems the album “a brilliant collection,” and in New Music Box, Frank J. Oteri writes, “Dargel is doing much more than writing extremely well-crafted songs. He is creating larger arcs of meaning, both musically and lyrically.”

Dargel studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory with John Luther Adams, Pauline Oliveros, and Brenda Hutchinson.  His music has been the subject of international radio broadcasts including PRI’s Studio 360 and NPR’s Weekend Edition.  He earned a tweet from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for his art-song settings of the remarks of Condoleezza Rice.

02/06/2014 at 6:30pm
02/07/2014 at 6:30pm
at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY
(work-in-progress performances, presented in CULTUREMART 2014, as part of the HERE Artist Residency Program)

Laboratory Theater’s GENET PORNO (project page) is based on Jean Genet’s 1943 novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, and follows the loves and betrayals of a cross-dressing, gay prostitute named Divine. Divine’s story is staged within the production of a present-day gay porn video, incorporating narrative elements from the confessional videoblog of a real-life porn star. Their stories merge in an “impossible ballet” as GENET PORNO explores our contemporary culture of narcissism and the consequences that result from blurring our public and private lives. Directed by Yvan Greenberg and performed by Corey Dargel, Oleg Dubson, and William Smith.

09/24/2013 at 7:30pm
Colwell Playhouse at the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL
09/28/2013 at 7:30pm
Lied Center of Kansas, 1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
10/02/2013 at 7:30pm
Macky Auditorium at Colorado University, 1595 Pleasant St, Boulder, CO
10/10/ 2013 at 8pm
The Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts at Texas A&M University, 273 Liberal Arts and Humanities Building, College Station, TX
10/26/2013 at 8pm
Kenan Auditorium, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC

FABLES ON GLOBAL WARMING performed by Armitage Gone! Dance with music by Corey Dargel
A recipient of the prestigious National Dance Project award, this 60-minute work, for dancers and performing musicians, explores the sometimes counter-intuitive connections between humans and animals, culture and nature, science and art. Created by choreographer Karole Armitage, director/designer Doug Fitch, and composer/singer-songwriter Corey Dargel, Fables on Global Warming takes a whimsical, 21st-century approach to the traditional fable, using wit, artifice, tricksterism, and other postmodern devices to illustrate fundamental moral truths about humans and nature. The piece is performed by seven dancers, with live music performed by Corey Dargel (voice and prerecorded synth+drum tracks), Margaret Lancaster (flute), and Jen Baker (trombone). The musicians perform onstage, playing and moving and acting alongside the dancers.

08/09/2013 at 10pm
The Stone, 2nd St. and Ave. C, New York, NY

microSig 8: Steve Parker
Steve Parker (trombone with electronics)
Music for brass and electronics, part of THE STONE RESIDENCIES
ENSEMBLE SIGNAL: MICRO SIG
This performance includes the world premiere of my piece for trombone, delay, and prerecorded tracks, Everyone But Jones.

06/04/2013 and 06/07/2013
Distrial Film Festival, Mexico City, Mexico

Barrel of Love a film written and directed by Oleg Dubson and featuring an original score by Corey Dargel, performed by Cornelius Dufallo (violin) and Wil Smith (pianos)
Recuento sobre el amor y la separación, el amante contra el amado, el anhelo amoroso y la aceptación melancólica; sobre las minucias cotidianas y la magia inesperada, los cambios en la gente y los lugares, las cosas que se van y las que se encuentran. Hannah, joven fotógrafa en ciernes, llama a Misha, su novio desempleado, para salir a Coney Island al final del otoño, con la intención de dejarlo. Su día se va desintegrando lentamente, Hannah es incapaz de tomar una acción decisiva y Misha pretende no darse cuenta de nada, entonces un “loquito” del barrio se inserta en esta situación para ponerla, junto con toda la película, patas para arriba.

03/23/2013 at 7pm sharp
Dance Center at Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY

Armitage Gone! Dance explores sustainability through a whimsical interpretation of traditional animal fables from around the globe, featuring music by Corey Dargel, and visually striking designs by Doug Fitch.  Corey Dargel performs (moves and sings) in the piece along with seven dancers.

01/28/2013 and 01/29/2013 at 7:00pm sharp (both nights)
HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY

Laboratory Theater presents a fully-staged series of scenes from GENET PORNO, a work being developed through HERE’s Artist Residency Program (HARP).  Directed by Yvan Greenberg.  Featuring Corey Dargel, Oleg Dubson, and Wil Smith.

GENET PORNO is based on Jean Genet’s 1943 novel, “Our Lady of the Flowers”, and follows the loves and betrayals of a transvestite prostitute named Divine. Divine’s story is staged within the production of a present-day gay porn video, incorporating narrative elements from the confessional videoblog of a real-life porn star. Their stories merge in an “impossible ballet” as GENET PORNO explores our contemporary culture of narcissism and the consequences that result from blurring our public and private lives.

01/13/2013 at 11am
Alvin Ailey Studios, Studio 6B, 405 West 55th St., New York, NY

Armitage Gone! Dance explores sustainability through a whimsical interpretation of traditional animal fables from around the globe, featuring music by Corey Dargel, and visually striking designs by Doug Fitch.  Corey Dargel performs (moves and sings) in the piece along with seven dancers.  This is a showing of the first 30 minutes of Fables on Global Warming. The premiere of the entire piece (approximately 70 minutes) will take place at Krannert Center at the University of Illinois in the fall of 2013.

01/07/2013 at 7:30pm
(le) poisson rouge, New York, NY

Multimedia art cabaret (LE) POISSON ROUGE presents Unraveling: New Songs by Corey Dargel and Jacob Cooper.

Unraveling brings together postmodern art song cycles by COREY DARGEL and JACOB COOPER, two composers whose work skillfully, subtly intertwines classical intricacy, cabaret intimacy, and pop immediacy.

Jacob Cooper: Silver Threads
Mellissa Hughes, voice

Corey Dargel: Hold Yourself Together
Corey Dargel, voice; James Moore, guitars; Eleonore Oppenheim, bass; Wil Smith, synth

12/18/ 2012 at 8pm
Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN

As part of its Rough Cuts series, Nautilus Music-Theater performed Corey’s song cycle Sexual Side Effects . Here’s a write-up.

12/17/2012 at 8pm
Nautilus Music-Theater, St. Paul, MN

As part of its Rough Cuts series, Nautilus Music-Theater performed Corey’s song cycle Sexual Side Effects. Here’s a write-up

11/18/2012 at 7pm
Crowley Theatre Marfa, TX

Chinati Artist in Residence Karole Armitage presents an informal showing of new material from a work in progress tentatively titled Fables on Global Warming.  Fables on Global Warming is a performance art musical about sustainability based on traditional animal fables from around the globe. The preview will feature composer Corey Dargel, visual director Doug Fitch and six dancers from the Armitage Gone! Dance Company. It explores the connections between humans and nature through art and science. Fables entwines dance with song, science, image and ancient puppet forms. Working on several levels at once, the piece will entertain children, newcomers, and sophisticated audiences alike. The production will premiere in the fall of 2013.

10/7/2012 at 7pm
HERE Arts Center, New York, NY

Laboratory Theater presents a work-in-progress showing of GENET PORNO (dir. Yvan Greenberg) featuring Corey Dargel, Oleg Dubson, and Wil Smith.  For more information, visit www.laboratorytheater.org

10/5/2012 at 8:30pm
Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY

Corey Dargel and Mellissa Hughes offer previews of songs from Corey’s forthcoming music-theater piece  The The Christs, as part of The Prelude Festival 2012’s Return of the Singspiel program.

9/30/2012 at 8pm
Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA

Collage New Music performs the New England premiere of Corey Dargel’s Thirteen Near-Death Experiences.

8/9/2012 at 6:30pm
MoMA, New York, NY

Third Coast Percussion will be presented in concert at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the Cage Centenary Celebration. Featuring music from TCP’s Cage percussion album on Mode Records, and the world premiere of the collaborative, 100-composer piece that TCP is curating entitled RENGA:Cage:100 for which Corey has made a contribution.

8/7/2012 at 6pm
Kennedy Center, 2700 F Street, NW Washington, DC

A preview performance of the piece that Third Coast Percussion is curating entitled RENGA:Cage:100 for which Corey has made a contribution, and music from Third Coast Percussion’s John Cage percussion album on Mode Records.

6/28, 29, and 30/2012
The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster St. New York, NY

Laboratory Theater’s GIT ALONG LIL DOGGIES is a meditative, cowboy dance-drama about the spiritual imprint of the windswept landscape of the American west. In an impressionistic narrative drawn from a variety of sources, two outlaws on the trail of an old adversary take work as jewel thieves for a washed up brothel madam. In a chance encounter with a traveling magician, they locate their enemy and conjure the violent forces of nature through sex-magic to take revenge. Directed by Yvan Greenberg, GIT ALONG LIL DOGGIES commingles elements of William S. Burroughs’ novel “The Place of Dead Roads”, with short stories by Annie Proulx, country-western line dance, and gay pornography. The performance unfolds against a projected video landscape of repainted Marlboro cigarette TV commercials and within an immersive soundscape incorporating country-western recordings from the 1920’s–30’s and contemporary new age music for pedal steel guitar. Laboratory Theater’s signature layering of choreography, text, sound, improvisation, and imitation, provides a continuously shifting framework for a reconsideration of the outlaw, frontier spirit that continues to shape the mindsets of Americans in the 21st Century.

04/20/2012 at 8pm and 04/22/2012 at 7:30pm
Galapagos Art Space (4/20) in Brooklyn, NY, and Le Poisson Rouge (4/22) in New York, NY

In its most ambitious concert program to date, the musical collective LE TRAIN BLEU performs works about life in prison, the death penalty, and different forms of incarceration.  Featuring no fewer than 21 musicians, conducted by Ransom Wilson, the concert includes the world premiere of MORE LAST WORDS FROM TEXAS by composer/performer Corey Dargel who will join the ensemble as vocalist in the performance of his own work as well as Frederic Rzewski’s COMING TOGETHER and ATTICA, featuring a newly composed video by Brooklyn artist Adam Kendall.

03/16/2012 at 7:30pm
First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn Heights) Brooklyn, NY

The third season of Music at First began with a concert featuring Corey performing his synths and vocals piece, Last Words from Texas, and the NY premiere of False Comfort, Corey’s 2012 song cycle for voice and pipe organ, performed by Corey Dargel (voice) and Wil Smith (pipe organ).

01/21/2012 at 7:30pm
Wertheim Performing Arts Center
FIU School of Music
11200 SW 8 St., Miami, FL

As part of Wil Smith‘s recital of 21st Century Music for Pipe Organ, Corey sang in the premiere of his new work for voice and pipe organ, False Comfort.  This was part of the New Music Miami festival.

01/20/2012 at 8pm
GAB Gallery
105 Northwest 23rd Street, Miami, FL

Corey performs songs from Last Words from Texas, Removable Parts, and Sexual Side Effects as part of Miami’s 12 NIGHTS concert series, accompanied by Wil Smith on keyboards.

01/09/2012 at 9pm
Zebulon Café,
258 Wythe Ave. Brooklyn, NY

Corey sings in an improvised set with Brian Chase (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Rob Reich (of Tin Hat and Gaucho), opening for Herculaneum and Tomas Fujiwara.

01/07/2012 at 10pm
Public Assembly
70 North 6th St., Brooklyn, NY

Part of the American Realness Festival, Corey performs a short set of songs on AMERICAN PUSSY FAGGOT! REALNESS. a performance-laden club night with two stages showcasing over twenty artists from the often-disparate worlds of dance, burlesque, cabaret, club and contemporary performance.

12/09/2011 at 8pm
South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY

TWO SIDES SOUNDING, CONTEMPORARY MUSIC VOICE AND PIANO DUO presents “A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND: SONGS OF THE BOARDWALK” Featuring the world premieres of “The Sirens, or Pleasure” by Eve Beglarian, “Coney Run” by Gilda Lyons and “Rapid Transit” by Eric Moe, and works by Corey Dargel, Daniel Felsenfeld, Christopher Gable and Gabriel Kahane

11/09/2011 and 11/10/2011 at 8pm both nights
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Center, the historic Hamm Building, St. Paul, MN

Tickets $22/$18

Wednesday, November 9, at 8:00 pm sharp and Thursday, November 10, at 8:00 pm sharp

The Walker Art Center, in cooperation with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Kate Nordstrum Projects, presents Corey Dargel: Song Cycles

Brooklyn-based composer/writer/singer Corey Dargel’s wry and witty assault on both pop and classical idioms employs deadpan vocals, awkward rhythms, and fragile harmonies to reveal heartbreaking intimacies. Join us for a two-part evening that features songs from Dargel’s art-pop song cycles Every Day Is the Same Day and Thirteen Near-Death Experiences. He’ll be joined by violinist Todd Reynolds and the Twin Cities’ own Ensemble 61 for a brilliantly lyrical series of songs that flit gracefully between humorous and tragic.

Beverages provided by Great Waters Bewing Co.

10/20/2011 at 11pm
92YTribeca, New York, NY

Corey Dargel, James Moore, and Wil Smith perform Hold Yourself Together as part of the 2011 SONiC Festival’s after-hours concert.

10/12/2011 at 7pm
World Financial Center
‘s Winter Garden, New York, NY

Mos Def, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, songstress Mellissa Hughes, and other special guests join members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic for a “reduction sampler” of the upcoming season.  Hear Derek Bermel’s arrangements of Mos Def’s original songs, 19th century Shape Note singing, works by David T. Little, Lev Zhurbin (aka Ljova), Corey Dargel, and Frederic Rzewski, all in small ensemble versions of music that the full orchestra will play later in the season.

09/24/2011 at 8pm
The Stone
, Avenue C and 2nd Street, New York, NY

Allen Otte and Bonnie Whiting Smith perform an evening of music for vocalizing percussionists, entitled Speaking of and After Cage, which includes Corey Dargel’s perpetual

09/21/2011 at 7:30pm
Howland Recital Hall, Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, OH

Allen Otte and Bonnie Whiting Smith perform an evening of music for vocalizing percussionists, entitled Speaking of and After Cage, which includes Corey Dargel’s perpetual

09/20/2011 at 8pm
Watson Hall, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, OH

Allen Otte and Bonnie Whiting Smith perform an evening of music for vocalizing percussionists, entitled Speaking of and After Cage, which includes Corey Dargel’s perpetual

09/20/2011 at 7:30pm
Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street, between Rivington and Delancey, New York, NY

An in-progress performance of Laboratory Theater‘s newest piece: GENET PORNO is based on Jean Genet’s 1943 novel “Our Lady of the Flowers”

09/12/2011 at 8pm
DROM
, 85 Avenue A between 5th and 6th Streets, New York, NY

Corey Dargel and Cornelius Dufallo perform Every Day Is the Same Day, opening for Jody Redhage’s CD Release concert

08/08/2011 at 7pm
Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA

Corey Dargel, James Moore, and Wil Smith perform Hold Yourself Together as well as songs from Removable Parts as part of the FREE 30 Live! Series at the Berkshire Fringe summer festival.

07/08/2011 from 7pm to midnight
The Invisible Dog
, Brooklyn, NY

Corey Dargel and Dither Quartet give the second NYC performance of Say Yes as part of Dither’s annual Extravaganza marathon concert.

07/02/2011 at 1pm and 3pm
Governor’s Island, New York, NY

Corey Dargel performs as a vocalist in Terry Riley’s seminal work In C in the opening concert of the first annual Rite of Summer Festival. (NY Times review)

05/23/2011 at 8pm
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, New York, NY

The opening concert of the 2011 Tribeca New Music Festival features ETHEL, the stunning string quartet phenomenon, performing world premieres by some of today’s hottest composers on the New York scene. Joining the quartet will be composer/vocalist Corey Dargel and pianist Kathleen Supové. Don’t miss what promises to be an extraordinary evening of new music launching the 2011 Tribeca New Music Festival!

05/11/2011 at 7:30pm
(le) Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

Corey Dargel and Dither Quartet give the premiere performance of Say Yes as part of the 2011 MATA Festival.

05/03/2011 at 7pm
Baryshnikov Arts Center
, New York, NY

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) continues its mini-series NYFOS Next, with a program of new vocal music performed and co-curated by composer Phil Kline with NYFOS’s Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, and Benjamin Sosland.  Featuring songs by Corey Dargel, Phil Kline, David Lang, Meredith Monk, and Elliott Sharp.

04/09/2011 at 8pm (sharp)
The Kitchen New York, NY

Corey Dargel performs as vocalist in excerpts from a new work, Ziggy, by composer Daniel Felsenfeld as part of 21cLiederabend

Seeking to update the definition of liederabend for the 21st century, independent producing companies Beth Morrison Projects, Opera on Tap and VisionIntoArt join forces to present the most ambitious, and comprehensive art song festival of the season. Building on the festival’s critically-acclaimed premiere in 2009 (Best of 2009 in Classical and Opera Timeout NYC), the producers have expanded the festival exponentially to present works of 21 composers including 6 world premieres over the course of 3 nights, encompassing an explosive array of styles presented within a visual palate of projection design, newly commissioned films and sculptural lighting design.

03/25/2011 at 7:30pm (sharp)
First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn Heights) Brooklyn, NY

The incomparable soprano Mellissa Hughes, who sings with the ensemble Newspeak, performs a vocal recital as part of the outstanding Music at First Series.  She will sing four songs from a brand new work-in-progress, Last Words, comprised of my settings of the last statements of executed offenders put to death by the state of Texas.  Also on the program are works by Timo Andres, Eric Shanfeld, Ted Hearne, Gabriel Kahane, and Matt Marks.

02/25/2011 at 7:30pm (sharp) at First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn Heights) Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn Heights-based Music at First Series announces its first concert of 2011, featuring sets from pianist David Friend and composer/vocalist Corey Dargel. The “astonishingly compelling” (The Washington Post) Friend will perform a set of pieces by Kate Moore, JacobTV, Daniel Wohl, Christopher Marianetti, and Angélica Negrón. Dargel will be joined by James Moore (guitars) and Wil Smith (synths) to perform his art/pop-song cycle Hold Yourself Together, recently hailed by The New York Times as “strongly fashioned and lyrically direct…one of Mr. Dargel’s most instantly relatable creations.”

02/11/2011 at 8pm (sharp) at SUNY Fredonia Fredonia, NY

As part of the ETHOS New Music Society NewSound 11 Festival, NOW Ensemble performs Other People’s Love Songs by (and with) Corey Dargel and The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt by Missy Mazzoli (featuring video by Stephen Taylor).

01/23/2011 at 2pm (sharp) at Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn Philharmonic Composer Fellow Corey Dargel will present a world premiere piece for the Brooklyn Philharmonic String Quartet.  He will also perform his song cycle Hold Yourself Together with James Moore (guitars) and Wil Smith (keyboard).  Also on the program are works by Randall Woolf and Igor Stravinsky.  The concert is inspired by the Brooklyn Museum’s special exhibit, Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets.

01/17/2011 from 2pm-9pm at Merkin Concert Hall New York, NY

The Ecstatic Music Festival kicks off on Monday, January 17 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) with a FREE 7-hour marathon from 2-9 pm featuring sets by some of the artists appearing later in the festival along with additional performers and a very special headliner TBA. Program highlights include a rare performance of Julius Eastman’s Stay On It with Ne(x)tworks; the U.S. premiere of John Matthias, Adrian Corker and Andrew Prior’s new work for violin, voice, electric guitar, piano and NeuroSampler, what happens; the second-ever New York performance of Corey Dargel’s complete Other People’s Love Songs with NOW Ensemble; and the Chiara String Quartet performing Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3.

12/17/2010 at 9:30pm (sharp) at BAM Café Brooklyn, NY

Violinist/composer Cornelius Dufallo performs his own Violin Loops I-V and singer/songwriter Corey Dargel joins for the latest installment of his song cycle about clinical depression, Every Day Is the Same Day.

“adventurous” and “iconolastic” -The New Yorker
“spare, earnest and—dare we say it—charming songs about depression” –Time Out New York on “Every Day Is the Same Day” (a critics’ pick)

11/12/2010 at 8:30pm (sharp) at ISSUE Project Room Brooklyn, NY

VITAL VOX: A VOCAL FESTIVAL explores the myriad power of the human voice in its solo and ensemble forms across a multitude of genres. This three day festival November 11, 12, and 13, 2010 at 8:30pm at ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, NY, celebrates composer-performers in the vocal arts who stretch and expand the voice in new and original ways, continuing a strong contemporary tradition developed in the US.

Corey performed on the November 12th concert (8:30pm), sharing the bill with composers/vocalists Samita Sinha, C Spencer Yeh, and Joan La Barbara:

Composer and singer/songwriter Corey Dargel will present the first incarnation of “Hold Yourself Together,” a collection of songs about composure — why we lose it, how we regain it, and for whom we keep it.  The songs take a quizzical approach to the commonly held belief that we should “compose ourselves” when confronted with exciting or devastating situations.  “Hold Yourself Together” will be performed by Dargel (vocals) with James Moore (guitars), and Wil Smith (keyboards).

10/14/2010 through 10/30/2010 at 8pm at The Brick (all shows 8:00pm) Brooklyn, NY

Laboratory Theater presents GIT ALONG LIL DOGGIES

“Brokeback Mountain” meets “Naked Lunch” in Laboratory Theater‘s newest work, a cowboy dance-drama about the spiritual imprint of the windswept landscape of the American west. In an impressionistic narrative inspired by the work of William S. Burroughs and Annie Proulx, two outlaws conjure the violent forces of nature through sex-magic to take revenge on an old adversary. Commingling elements of country-western line dance and gay pornography, the performance unfolds against a projected video landscape of repainted Marlboro cigarette TV commercials and within an immersive soundscape incorporating contemporary new age music for pedal steel guitar.

Directed by Yvan Greenberg. Performed by Corey Dargel, Sheila Donovan, Oleg Dubson, and Wil Smith.

10/06/2010 at 8pm at The Windup Space Baltimore, MD
Part of the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern music series of Baltimore, MD: The thoughts, actions, and idiosyncracies of “wannabe amputees” supply the material for Corey Dargel’s Removable Parts. With pianist Kathleen Supové, Dargel will perform selections from his award-winning musical theatre piece Removable Parts and will be joined by violinist and Peabody faculty member Courtney Orlando in excerpts from Every Day is The Same Day, a song cycle that presents worst-case scenarios as the only possible alternatives to boredom and loneliness.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010, 8 p.m.
The Windup Space | 12 W North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21218 | Click for directions
Tickets: $10 general admission and $5 for Contemporary Museum members and students with a valid ID

09/27/2010 at 6:30pm at Chelsea Art Museum New York, NY

Corey performed with pianist Kathleen Supové & violinist Courtney Orlando at the 2010 MATA Benefit event.  The event was reviewed in the New York Times.

07/09/2010 at 8pm (sharp) at Galapagos Art Space Brooklyn, NY

American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap return to Galapagos Art Space for the ongoing series Opera Grows in Brooklyn which brings the best of contemporary opera to one of Brooklyn’s most innovative art venues.

The July 9th installment featured a performance of songs from Removable Parts performed by Corey Dargel and Kathleen Supové.

05/21/2010 at 8pm (sharp) at Galapagos Art Space Brooklyn, NY

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), David T. Little, and pianist Kathleen Supové join Corey in a performance of songs from Corey’s new album, Someone Will Take Care of Me.

Also performing is Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think) withACME.

Part of New Amsterdam Records’ Archipelago series:

Archipelago concludes with a special closing night event featuring an ambitious mix of stellar ensembles and performers. Known for its definitive takes on the masterpieces of the 20th and 21st century, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) actively seeks to redefine chamber music’s role in a new century. Joining ACME on stage will be Craig Wedren, a composer/vocalist best known for his work with the legendary math rock/post-hardcore outfit, Shudder to Think – and his impressive body of film music work (High Art, Velvet Goldmine). The show will also feature composer/vocalist Corey Dargel, who will use the evening to explore themes of loss and love in a special New Amsterdam dual record release event. Regarding Dargel’s idiosyncratic chamber pop, the New York Times had this to say: “Dargel sings in a modest, sweet-toned, conversational way, and writes songs whose lyrics and melodies are at once wistful and wry, tender and irreverent… giving voice to the lives and relationships of his subjects.” Both records are highly-acclaimed, theatrical pop-concept albums: for the semi-staged Removable Parts, Corey tells the twisted story of voluntary amputees with the help of renowned pianist Kathleen Supové, while the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will join Corey for a selections from Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, a charmingly demented art-pop song cycle about hypochondria. Lauded for their “vigorous, richly detailed performances”, ICE brings nuance and precision to Dargel’s first fully-acoustic large-scale project.

05/09/2010, at 7pm, at Joe’s Pub New York, NY

Performing with violinist Cornelius Dufallo, opening for The Fancy

Part of Queer Conscience

Integrating affection, honesty, and humor into every song, The Fancy is a stand out in the Brooklyn indie rock scene.   Their sound manages to be both eccentric and accessible, featuring atypical instrumentation within an equally unique song-writing setting. They bring this individual style and energy to their Joe’s Pub debut on May 9th, 2010.  Classically trained musicians with a love for popular forms, the Fancy merges chamber music and pop sensibilities in their self-titled EP. This 5-track EP overflows with vocal harmony, full-band counterpoint, thick orchestral textures, and tongue-in-cheek lyricism. This special evening will provide a kick-off to the iTunes release of this EP and will feature an opening performance by Corey Dargel, Cornelius Dufallo and a digital looper.

03/13/2009 at 8pm at Velvet Lounge Chicago, IL

Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, a 45-minute cycle of semi-autobiographical art-pop songs about hypochondria. The piece, which Dargel tailored for ICE’s virtuosic performance style, pairs his distinctive singing voice with a mixed ensemble of winds, strings, piano and percussion, with choreography by Yvan Greenberg and stage direction by Emma Griffin. In Dargel’s original lyrics, with symptom checklists masquerading as love songs, an abnormal anxiety is gradually subsumed into larger issues of longing, alienation, and empathy. The music, meanwhile, presents a radical departure from the glitchy electro-pop for which Dargel is best known, as well as a defiant shift from ICE’s core repertoire.

11/29/2009 at 8pm at The Stone New York, NY

Composer and violinist Cornelius Dufallo presents a concert entitled Journaling (part one) performing music by Dufallo, Gosfield, Gardner, Dargel, and Clyne.

Cornelius Dufallo (aka Neil) and Corey Dargel will premiere Every Day Is the Same Day, a set of songs about the subconscious motivations behind disaster fantasies. As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizeck said, “The only way to imagine a Utopia of social cooperation is to conjure a situation of absolute catastrophe.” The piece is scored for singer and violin with digital looping. Dargel will join Dufallo in the performance.

Sunday, November 29th at 8pm @ The Stone, New York, NY

Tickets: $10 at the door

11/19/2009 at 8pm
in Brooklyn, NY

21cLiederabend will showcase a vast array of works by post-classical composers Caleb Burhans, Leah Coloff, Corey Dargel, Osvaldo Golijov, Judd Greenstein, Ted Hearne, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly,and Milica Paranosic. FEATURED SINGERS include Grammy award winner Hila Plitman, Abigail Fischer, Amelia Watkins, Anne-Carolyn Bird, David Adam Moore, Helga Davis, Kamala Sankaram, and SKIM accompanied by the VisionIntoArt ensemble with very special guest stars ETHEL. The program culminates with the premiere of a new work by composer & singer Kamala Sankaram.

Corey Dargel’s painfully tender song cycle, Sexual Side Effects, puts a quasi-baroque spin on 21st-century themes of romantic dysfunction and inadequacy. Dargel’s take on impotence, patient-therapist transference, and internet cruising, features his trademark balance of earnestness and skepticism. Sexual Side Effects was commissioned by Avian Music who premiered the work in January 2009. On this concert, the piece will be performed by soprano Amelia Watkins and musicians from Vision Into Art and ETHEL.

Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
718-222-8500 | www.galapagosartspace.com

Doors: 7:00pm/Show: 8:00pm | Tix: $20.00

6/13/2009 at 7pm
6/20/2009 at 7pm
6/24/2009 at 7:30pm
in Brooklyn, NY

Laboratory Theater performs “Le Mirage” as part of the Anti-Depressant Festival at The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave. (btw Union & Lorimer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

Tickets $15;
To purchase by phone call 212.354.3101
Click to purchase tickets online…

LE MIRAGE is an imagined lecture and demonstration of mystical dance by members of the real-life 1980’s French-Canadian cult, The Order of the Solar Temple. Three members of an alleged Las Vegas chapter of the Solar Temple offer true peace and happiness through a commingling of dance, original new age music, inspirational texts, and ritual. Featuring Rosicrucianism, ecological philosophy, the Holy Grail, and Transit to the planet Jupiter.

“At this Supreme Moment, the ruby power of the Work should rejoin the Levels of the Future. Our transit will be as a passage across a mirror. Our Terrestrial Journey is coming to an end.”

Laboratory Theater’s newest piece is drawn from actual lecture transcripts and ritual texts by The Order of the Solar Temple. The Order was a millenarian cult active in the 1980s and early ‘90s in Quebec, Canada and Geneva, Switzerland. They believed in the continuing existence of the Knights Templar, performed elaborate secret rituals, ran an organic farm, and professed that their members would be reunited one day with an ancient brotherhood of Ascended Masters on the planet Jupiter. In 1994, 53 members were found dead amidst fiery blazes, a combination of mass-suicide and ritual murder, their bodies arranged in star patterns.

Directed by Yvan Greenberg; performed by Corey Dargel, Sheila Donovan, and Oleg Dubson, with original music by François B. Nouvel-Âge, the piece unfolds through Laboratory Theater’s signature layering of choreography, text, complex sound design, improvisation, and imitation.

5/22/09 and 5/23/09 at 8pm (two shows)
in New York, NY

Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at E. 9th St.
NYC 10009
Phone: 212-477-5829

ICE returns to PS 122 to offer the world premiere of THIRTEEN NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, an art-pop song cycle by Brooklyn composer-performer Corey Dargel.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), recently described by the New York Times as “one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music,” returns to Performance Space 122 for a genre-eclipsing program of world premieres from four of New York’s most talented young composer-performers.

The program’s centerpiece will be Corey Dargel’s Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, a 45-minute cycle of semi-autobiographical art-pop songs about hypochondria. The piece, which Dargel tailored for ICE’s virtuosic performance style, pairs his distinctive singing voice with a mixed ensemble of winds, strings, piano and percussion, with choreography by Yvan Greenberg and stage direction by Emma Griffin. In Dargel’s original lyrics, with symptom checklists masquerading as love songs, an abnormal anxiety is gradually subsumed into larger issues of longing, alienation, and empathy. The music, meanwhile, presents a radical departure from the glitchy electro-pop for which Dargel is best known, as well as a defiant shift from ICE’s core repertoire. Dargel has been blogging about the piece’s genesis at 13neardeathexperiences.com.

ICE will round out the program with the world premieres of three stunning shortworks by three of New York’s most luminary young composer-performers – Stephen Lehman, Nathan Davis and Mario Diaz de León.

04/02/09 at 3pm and 7pm (two shows)
in New York, NY

“Give you a tenner, get me suit from the pawn. In the theatre at 6 for an 8 o’clock show. Doing Murphy once a month, me whole life—when the rent comes due.”

MURPHY by Honor Molloy with music by Corey Dargel
recipient of the 2007 Frederick Loewe Award in Music-Theatre from New Dramatists

Irish comedian Murphy spends his final years in a studio apartment in Berkeley, California. Once-famous, now ailing and demented, he performs his routines on his Murphy bed for an audience of one—the oral historian, Jon Harris, from Lubbock, Texas.

A Workshop Presentation performed by Molloy and Dargel, directed by Yvan Greenberg
New Dramatists
424 West 44th St (btw 9th and 10th)

2/25/2009 at 7pm and 9pm (two shows)
in New York, NY

Work in Progress Showings: Laboratory Theater’s Git Along Lil Doggies

Laboratory Theater’s newest work, Git Along Lil Doggies, is a meditative, cowboy dance-drama about the spiritual imprint of the windswept landscape of the American west. In a narrative drawn from a variety of sources, two outlaws on the trail of an old adversary take work as jewel thieves for a washed up brothel madam. In a chance encounter with a traveling magician, they locate their enemy and conjure the violent forces of nature through sex-magic to take revenge. The performance unfolds against a projected video landscape drawn from Marlboro cigarette TV commercials and within an evocative soundscape incorporating recordings of early country-western singer Hank Thompson and contemporary music for pedal steel guitar. Featuring Corey Dargel, Sheila Donovan, Oleg Dubson, and Andrew Gilchrist, Laboratory Theater’s signature layering of choreography, text, improvisation, and imitation provides a continuously shifting framework for a reconsideration of the frontier spirit that continues to shape the mindsets of Americans in the 21st Century.

Venue: Dixon Place
For more information, visit: Laboratory Theater

2/4/2009 at 7pm sharp
in New York, NY

“Sexual Side Effects” at (Le) Poisson Rouge

The Avian Ensemble performs a concert entitled “Love Machines and Shameless Hussies: songs of love, lust, sex, and jealousy.” The concert features the premiere of Corey’s new piece, “Sexual Side Effects,” commissioned by Avian Music. “Sexual Side Effects” is scored for Baroque soprano, flute, piano, violin, and cello. Also on the program are works by Conrad Cummings, Raymond Lustig, and Peter Flint, and a performance by world-reknowned burlesque performer, Miss Dirty Martini, who will reconstruct Sally Rand’s legendary fan dance set to Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Venue: (Le) Poisson Rouge
For more information, visit: Avian Music

1/31/2009 at 8pm
in Philadelphia, PA

“Sexual Side Effects” presented by Chamber Music Now!

The Avian Ensemble performs a concert entitled “Love Machines and Shameless Hussies: songs of love, lust, sex, and jealousy.” The concert features the premiere of Corey’s new piece, “Sexual Side Effects,” commissioned by Avian Music. “Sexual Side Effects” is scored for Baroque soprano, flute, piano, violin, and cello. Also on the program are works by Conrad Cummings, Raymond Lustig, and Peter Flint, and a performance by world-reknowned burlesque performer, Miss Dirty Martini, who will reconstruct Sally Rand’s legendary fan dance set to Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Venue: The Community Education Center
For more information, visit: Chamber Music Now!

1/29/2009 at 7pm
in Wilmington, DE

“Sexual Side Effects” premiere by the Avian Ensemble

The Avian Ensemble performs a concert entitled “Love Machines and Shameless Hussies: songs of love, lust, sex, and jealousy.” The concert features the premiere of Corey’s new piece, “Sexual Side Effects,” commissioned by Avian Music. “Sexual Side Effects” is scored for Baroque soprano, flute, piano, violin, and cello. Also on the program are works by Conrad Cummings, Raymond Lustig, and Peter Flint, and a performance by world-reknowned burlesque performer, Miss Dirty Martini, who will reconstruct Sally Rand’s legendary fan dance set to Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Venue: Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
For more information, visit: Avian Music

1/7/2009 – 1/11/2009 at various times
in New York, NY

REMOVABLE PARTS Encore Performances at HERE Arts Center – part of Culturemart and Under The Radar festivals

Schedule of performances: January 7-9 at 7pm; January 10 at 7pm and 10pm; January 11 at 1pm and 5pm: This special engagement marks a co-presentation with the Under The Radar Festival by HERE Arts Center’s Artist Residency Program alumnus Corey Dargel. Performed by Dargel and pianist Kathleen Supove, Removable Parts is directed by Emma Griffin with dances by Yvan Greenberg and production design by Raquel Davis. Removable Parts centers on a victim of unrequited love, who turns to voluntary amputation as he questions the usefulness of his body parts once his heart is broken. This production drew rave reviews in its 2007 mainstage run at HERE Arts Center, with The New York Times noting its “intelligent grace that is as moving as it is impressive.” Additionally, Removable Parts is the recipient of the NY Innovative Theatre Award for “Outstanding Performance-Art Production.”

Venue: HERE Arts Center
For more information, visit: Under The Radar

12/6/08 at 8:00pm
in Toronto, Ontario

REMOVABLE PARTS at the The Music Gallery

REMOVABLE PARTS, Corey’s critically acclaimed theatrical song-cycle about love and voluntary amputation, is presented as part of the The Music Gallery’s “Pop Avant” series.

Venue: The Music Gallery
For more information, visit: The Music Gallery

11/21/08 at 8:00pm
in Pittsburgh, PA

REMOVABLE PARTS at the Warhol Museum

REMOVABLE PARTS, Corey’s critically acclaimed theatrical song-cycle about love and voluntary amputation, is presented as part of the “Off the Wall” series at The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Venue: The Warhol Museum
For more information, visit: The Warhol Museum

11/4/08 at 8:30pm sharp (doors at 8pm)
in New York, NY

Election Night Party/Concert with Newspeak, Anti-Social Music, and Corey Dargel

An Election Night celebration with performances by Newspeak, Anti-Social Music and Corey Dargel. Live election coverage projected on a big screen, with captioning during the sets so you won’t miss a nail-biting moment! Cover is $12, but if you bring your voting stub it goes down to a recession-busting $9.99.

Venue: Nuyorican Poets Cafe
For more information, visit: Newspeak

10/29/08 at 9:30pm sharp (doors at 9pm)
in New York, NY

OTHER PEOPLE’S LOVE SONGS with NOW Ensemble

The album release concert for OTHER PEOPLE’S LOVE SONGS, featuring NOW Ensemble and special guest accordionist/singer Kamala Sankaram

Venue: Le Poisson Rouge
For more information, visit: New Amsterdam Records

9/27/08 at 8:00pm
in North Adams, MA

TIME AND MOTION STUDY and MASS by Nick Brooke

Corey performs as a singer/actor in two pieces by Nick Brooke, composer-in-residence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Venue: MASS MoCA
For more information, visit: Nick Brooke

9/6/08 at 8:00pm
in Sarasota, FL

REMOVABLE PARTS at New College

REMOVABLE PARTS, Corey’s critically acclaimed theatrical song-cycle about love and voluntary amputation, will be the opening event for the 2008-2009 season of “New Music New College” in Sarasota.

Venue: Harry Sudakof Center at New College
For more information, visit: New Music New College