Thirteen Near-Death Experiences
Thirteen Near-Death Experiences is a 50-minute art-pop song cycle about hypochondria, commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and performed by Corey Dargel and ICE.
Read the New York Times review here.
The piece, which Dargel tailored for ICE’s technically sophisticated 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. Read more about the piece, listen to audio, and watch videos at 13neardeathexperiences.com.
Other People’s Love Songs with NOW Ensemble
Other People’s Love Songs is based on an earnest, sentimental concept: All thirteen songs were commissioned by individuals as gifts to their significant others. Corey Dargel – composer, lyricist, and singer – interviewed the couples and learned all about their histories, personalities, quirks, private jokes, and emotional lives. He spun this tender data into music and lyrics that encompass a wide range of feelings. The real-life subjects of these songs range from celebrities to the “couple next door.” Newlyweds, long marrieds, gay couples, siblings, daughters, mothers, and others stepped forward to commission these songs. At times, the results are almost voyeuristic in their intimacy. (more…)
Removable Parts
Removable Parts is a tenderly dysfunctional music-theater piece that deals with the phenomenon of voluntary amputation, a real-life condition in which people have a compulsive desire to remove an otherwise-healthy limb. They call themselves “wannabe amputees,” and they believe that self-imposed amputation is the only way they can be whole.
Removable Parts is performed by Corey Dargel (the singer) and Kathleen Supové (the pianist), directed by Emma Griffin with dances by Yvan Greenberg and production design by Raquel Davis.
Removable Parts takes an empathetic, Oliver Sacks-style
approach to voluntary amputa
