Episode 62 - Sara Corry

May 28, 2018

Happy Memorial Day! For this most important and solemn of holidays I am joined by Sara Corry, the staff arranger for the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own."

Topics:

• Sara's background and how her parents took her to the doctor as a child because she heard music in her head!
• The variety of ensembles and opportunities that she writes for as an arranger for the "Pershing's Own."
• Thoughts about what we can do as educators to help encourage young women to become composers.

Links:

• Sara Corry, Composer
• The United States Army Band "Pershing's Own"
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• Pärt: Cantus in memorium Benjamin Britten
• Schnittke: Piano Quartet No. 5 (5th movement)
• Schwantner: ...And the Mountains Rising Nowhere
• Jolley: The Eyes of the World Are Upon You

Biography:

 

Sara Corry is currently a member of the U.S. Army where she serves as a Staff Arranger for the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own." For the last six years she has been a Teaching Fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp, providing instruction on electronic music and theory.
As a composer, Corry has had notable performances by the JACK Quartet, Harvard's Videri String Quartet, Dallas Symphony Chamber Players, Meadows Symphony Orchestra (Dallas), Interlochen Ensemble and the Musica Nova Ensemble (UMKC). She has received commissions from the Playground Ensemble, Dallas Museum of Art - Nasher Sculpture Center, and University of Colorado. She has been a featured composer at the Aquilla Summer Music Festival, ISCM Miami, and the UNC Open Space Festival. Her Composition "Aftersong" is included on the "Electronic Masters Vol. 5" CD released in 2016 by ABLAZE Records.

Coming from both a scientific and musical background, she was the recipient of a Catalyst grant to fund her ideas linking music and physics and won the O'Neal-Taniguchi prize for Arts Entrepreneurship for the development of a computer program that reads brainwaves and aids in musical performance.

In addition to composing and arranging, Corry is an active harpist. As a musician, she has performed in Carnegie Hall, Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Meyerson Symphony Center, Meng Concert Hall, as well as venues in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.

She earned a Master's degree in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently finishing her D.M.A in Music Composition and Technology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her principle teachers include Dan Kellogg, John Drumheller, Donald Grantham, Dan Welcher, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Rob Frank.