John Corley (1920–2000)
John Corley belonged to the staff at ASMC during the early years when the Center was held at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts. He conducted the concert band, most probably from 1957–1961.
Mr. Corley was best know as the long time conductor of the MIT Concert Band. He directed the Band from its inception in 1948 until his retirement in 1999. During that time, he oversaw the commission of about 50 new works, developed a repertoire of more than 350 pieces and worked with more than 1,000 MIT students.
At various stages in his career, Mr. Corley directed the MIT Symphony Orchestra (1955–1965), founded and directed the Boston Brass Ensemble, taught conducting at the Boston Conservatory of Music, directed the Boston Conservatory's Wind Ensemble and served as music director of the Brookline Public Schools. He was a member of the New England Conservatory of Music's Board of Trustees and a member of the board of advisers at Berklee College of Music.
Mr. Corley received bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Boston University and began his career in Iceland as the youngest band leader in the United States Army, where he conducted more than 700 concerts for Allied troops. In 1993 the MIT Concert Band went on tour to Iceland, a surprise the students had arranged for him. In 1999, just prior to his retirement, Mr. Corley was presented with the Gordon Y. Billard Award, presented annually to a member of the MIT faculty, non-faculty employee or one not necessarily affiliated with the Institute, for exemplary service.
During his tenure, the MIT band only performed pieces written for band (no orchestral transcriptions). Much of it was new or recent in origin. This made the band unique. The MIT Concert Band was one of the first ensembles to devote itself entirely to original works for band and often presented the Boston premiere of works by well-known 20th-century composers, such as Hindemith, Copeland and Schoenberg
(Personal note from the website administrator Tim
Doherty: I played for a number of years under John Corley's
leadership as a member of the Hingham Civic Orchestra. Those
years were partly parallel to the years I spent at ASMC. He
was a superb conductor. If I recall correctly, I played at
least 15 different programs with him, mostly purely
symphonic concerts.
In 1976 I was first chair, first trumpet in the
Massachusetts All-State band (another ASMC alumni was first
chair, first trumpet in the All-State orchestra that year,
by the way). John Corley was the conductor. During one of
the rehearsals, referring to an exposed part of one
piece played only by the first trumpet, he said »I
think that would sound much better in the solo voice«
and winked at me. Later that day, I asked the trumpet
section to stay seated after the last rehearsal because I
thought a certain difficult passage wasn't being played
well enough and wanted to do a short section rehearsal. Some
of the trumpet players didn't like the idea and said so.
Then we heard a loud voice calling over to us. It was Mr.
Corley saying rather bruskly »he's right; do
it!«.
Later that Spring Mr. Corley gave me the opportunity of
playing the solo part of the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with
the Hingham orchestra.
Ironically, during all the time I played for him, I did not
know he had worked at ASMC and I don't think he knew I had
attended it.)
(Sources: Many passages of this text were extracted verbatim from sources on the internet: (source 1), (source 2), (source 3))
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