New Music USA Online Library

Corso's Marriage (2011) for baritone and piano

Thomas Oboe Lee

I met Tim Krol completely by accident at a restaurant across the street from Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2010. He asked me what I was doing here in New York City. I told him the young and versatile Mana Tokuno just premiered a work of mine at Weill Recital Hall. He told me he’s a musician as well; a singer … a baritone. He gave me his card. When I got home I visited Tim’s website and was very impressed with his voice, his singing, and especially his diction.

I had a concert at Boston College in the spring of 2011, and I needed a baritone to sing my Oscar Wilde Letter to Bosie, “De Profundis.” I emailed him and asked if he would be interested to doing it. He said yes. Tim and pianist Holly Chatham came up to Boston and did a fabulous job on the work.

During the very same summer I accidentally stumbled upon a poem by Gregory Corso called “Marriage.” I loved the sardonic way Corso imagined the institute of matrimony. The poem is so funny and amusing that I decided it would make a great song cycle for baritone and piano. And of course, I wanted Tim to premiere it.

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