Corey Dargel is an Austin-based composer and singer-songwriter. He studied music composition at Oberlin Conservatory and moved to Brooklyn in 2001, where he performed as a singer-songwriter with self-produced electronic accompaniments. There, he earned the attention of classical music critics Alex Ross, Anthony Tommasini, Amanda MacBlane, and Steve Smith. Dargel’s debut album of synth-pop songs about falling in love with celebrities, Less Famous Than You, was released in 2006. Since then, he has released three other albums: Other People’s Love Songs (2008), Someone Will Take Care of Me (2010), and OK It’s Not OK (2015). Dargel’s work has been the subject of in-studio interviews broadcast on PRI’s Studio 360, NPR’s Weekend Edition, KALW San Francisco’s Then and Now, WFMT Chicago’s Critical Thinking with Andrew Patner, and WNYC’s Spinning on Air. He even earned a tweet from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for his art-song settings of the remarks of Condoleezza Rice.
Recognition for Dargel’s work include: Creative Capital Fellowship in 2013, two awards from Aaron Copland Fund for Music’s Recording Program in 2009 and 2010, Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theater in 2008, New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2007, and numerous other accolades. He has held artist residencies at the Chinati Foundation, as a Brooklyn Philharmonic Composer Fellow, and at MacDowell, the HERE Arts Center, the New Dramatists, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
