“A perfectly balanced - ornate but unpretentious - tapestry of sound, the sort of thing audio engineers only dream of.” (TEMPO).
American violist and interdisciplinary performer—
Corey Worley is an ardent defender of contemporary music. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Proton (collaboration led to 2nd prize at Petrichor Music Competition 2022), The Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and members of Ensemble Intercontemporain. Concertizing throughout North American and Europe, he has made appearances at the Ojai Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, Bayerischer Rundfunk Radio Klassik, The Donaueschingen Festival, The Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Musique de Chambre à Giverny, and the Bang on a Can Marathon.
Corey has attended many prestigious academies including the Lucerne Festival Academy, National Arts Center Young Artist Program, The Talis Academy, SoundSCAPE, and Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau. As an orchestral musician, Corey frequently appears with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Paris Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire.
He started his music education originally as a violinist, later switching to viola under the tutelage of Elias Goldstein. Corey is a double-degree graduate of the Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he studied viola with Peter Slowik while earning a degree in psychology. Later, he was accepted into the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) in the class of Pierre-Henri Xuereb and Louis Fima along with the chamber music class of Jean Sulem, earning his Master's degree with "High Distinctions". Violists such as Garth Knox, Laurent Verney, Jack Stulz, and Geneviève Strosser have also closely mentored Corey.
“A violist unleashed.”
— Le Blog d’Annika
Pushing musical boundaries
Corey specializes in gestural music and other forms of interdisciplinary performance. From collaborations with slackfline acrobats, to electronic composers, to visual artists, Corey is passionate about working with living creatives + composers to develop original works that redefine the concert experience. After winning an XARTs grant, his ensemble, Trio Ligature, was able to travel to Rome, Italy, to collect audio + visual media to develop a multimedia installation to accompany their performances of Andrew Norman’s “The Companion Guide to Rome.” Corey is a former member of the Collaborative Arts Ensemble (New York City) and semble N (Oberlin). In collaborations with pianist Jay Gottlieb, Church of the Friendly Ghost, and the Oberlin New Music Society, he has interpreted graphic scores, improvised, and participated in experimental game music.
In the realm of gestural performance, recent concerts include performances at the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), New Media Art &Sound Summit (USA), “Skyspace Piz Uter” Zuoz (Switzerland), Nuremberg (Germany), and Paris (France). Commissioned by the Bridging Arts Festival, Corey collaborated with composer Tyler Futrell to expand his “Pas de Deux” to a “Pas de Quatre.” Upcoming concerts include solo performances of Michael Beil’s “Caravan” for performer with live-video and tape. Corey’s repertoire also includes works by George Aperghis and Thierry De Mey.
Solo.
Live at Darmstadt International Festival 2021
Darmstadt, Germany
Chamber Music.
Régis Campo - String Quartet No.2
Jospeh Puglia, violin 1; Juliette Beauchamp, violin 2; Corey Worley, viola; Lisa Strauss, cello;
Live - Musique de chambre à Giverny, France
Trio Ligatura: Dana Johnson, violin; Corey Worley, viola; Aaron Wolff, cello.
Live - Kennedy Center, DC.
Bridging Arts Music Festival - Nuremberg, Germany
Live - Bayerischer Rundfunk Radio Concert Diffusion
Gestural.
Thierry de Mey “Silence Must Be”
Live - Darmstadt 2021
Michael Beil - Caravan (rehearsal clip)
Tyler Futrell- Pas de Quatre (condensed narrative)
Mathilde Lauridon, violin; Corey Worley, viola; Rikka Läser, dancer; Ivo Bärtsch, Dancer.
Live- 2021 Bridging Arts Festival Nuremberg
Large Ensemble.
Mathias Spahlinger (*1944)
furioso (1991/92)
Ensemble Proton, Live - Bern, Switzerland
2nd Place Laureate of Petrichor Music Competition 2022
Louis Andriessen- De Staat
Live - Bang on a Can Music Marathon