Maria Thompson Corley

Maria Thompson Corley (DMA, piano, The Juilliard School) began composing and arranging as a child. Since then, her music has been commissioned and recorded by numerous musicians and entities. She is published by Walton, Gentry, Cimarron, NoteNova, and North Star. Though she is known primarily for her vocal music, her instrumental pieces have also won awards.
Dr. Corley’s short-form opera The Sky Where You Are (Jenny O’Connell, librettist) premiered in 2020 as part of The Decameron Opera Coalition’s award-winning virtual series, Tales from a Safe Distance. The Place (Sandra Oyinloye, librettist) was commissioned by Lyric Opera of the North for DOC’s subsequent production. An Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, Maria was 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 vocal music has been commissioned, performed and/or recorded in America and abroad by ensembles such as Canadian Art Song Project, Musica Intima, KlangArt Vision, MUSE (Cincinnati Women’s Choir), Florida A &M Concert Choir, California State University (East Bay) and the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra. Similarly, her scores have been written for, performed and/or taught by Sequina Dubose, Darryl Taylor, Louise Toppin, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Marcia Porter, James Dargan, Michael Harper and others.