“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
— Victor Hugo
At times like these, we could all use a little positive reinforcement. In this case, it comes from the alter ego of opera singer and music teacher Cory O’Niell Walker.
Walker is a diverse performer, composer and designer who entertains in many genres including opera, musical theater, art, song and dance. He has been a soloist with The Network for New Music in Philadelphia, Opera Boston, Longwood Opera, New England Light Opera, Boston Theater Bridge, Fiddlehead Theatre, North Shore Music Theater and Cape Rep Theater. Cory has also been seen at the Philly Fringe Festival performing his own theater works, such as “L’Heure Exquise” and “Cupid’s Little Prick.” He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Ithaca College, where he also studied composition. Walker maintains a popular voice studio in Philadelphia, where he also performs regularly with The Opera Company of Philadelphia and The Mendelssohn Club Chorus. (He’s also my neighbor and the guy I call if I see a bug in my basement or need something lifted.)
On Feb. 25, Cookie Diorio, Walker’s drag persona, is performing a benefit concert at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. The concert will explore the topics of fear, adversity, triumph and joy through traditional Southern-style gospel music sprinkled with Cookie’s hilarious, poignant and deeply spiritual personal anecdotes and life lessons. Miss D. will be accompanied by international pianist Jillian Zack, and a portion of the proceeds will go to The Attic Youth Center.
PGN: What was the first opera you remember seeing?
COW: The first opera I ever saw was not live; it was a production of “Aida” that I saw in high school on laser disc. My choir teacher showed it to the class on one of our off days. It was when I was in ninth grade — I guess I was 14 — and it was the day after a concert so we got to watch videos and that’s what he put on.
PGN: Laser disc! That’s hysterical. So you were in the choir?
COW: Yes, I’ve been in some kind of choir since the fourth grade.
PGN: When did you first start to realize, Oh, I can sing a little bit?
COW: Well, my mom tells the story that ever since I could make sound I wanted to make it musical. And that even in pre-school and kindergarten I would ask her to take me to musical concerts and choral concerts, so I’ve apparently been interested in music as far back as I go!
PGN: Did she listen to a lot of music when she was pregnant?
COW: That’s a good question. I don’t know, but I know that my family loves music and my mom always listened to a variety of music in the house, from jazz to musical theater to pop. She has a very broad musical spectrum. So I would imagine I heard it in utero.
PGN: Tell me about the fam.
COW: I am from Central New York state, a small town called Auburn, which is near Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. My parents are blue-collar workers: My mom worked in several factories and spent the second half of her work life in health care working with special-needs clients. My family has lived in the same three-block radius in Auburn for about 150 years.
PGN: That’s amazing!
COW: A point of interest, my grandmother’s grandfather went to church with Harriet Tubman.
PGN: Was the family very church-going, and if so, was that your first introduction to gospel music?
COW: I’ve always gone to church and my family has always gone to church but the church life was split between my father’s side, which went to the AME Zion Church, and my mother’s side, which went to a Catholic church. Although, it was a very small community and the AME church was right around the corner from my childhood home so everybody went there for family occasions and celebrations. It was like a community center.
PGN: Any siblings?
COW: I have one younger sister.
PGN: What was an early sign that you were destined to become a fabulous gay boy?
COW: [Laughs] Well, I was always a little bit different. It was very evident in the way I carried myself, especially compared to my butch male cousins. While they were all striking B-boy poses I was doing something silly and fun. It was pretty obvious very early and having a gender-fluid name like Cory didn’t help. Between the name and my effeminate nature, I got the question, “Are you a boy or a girl?” a whole lot.
PGN: Wait, you’re effeminate?
COW: [Laughs] You know me too well!
PGN: Though I have to say, you are my go-to guy whenever I need help with butch things like catching the occasional mouse that gets inside or carrying heavy items up the stairs. You definitely got butch points for handling the possum that was stuck in our neighbor’s recycling bin.
COW: I do have a butch inside. I can DIY just about anything. If something needs to be done or repaired, I will find a way to do it. I have a basement full of assorted tools and I can do just about anything handy. I may not have any idea what the different tools are called, but I can use them!
PGN: What did you want to be when you grew up?
COW: Originally, I wanted to be a doctor. I used to get a magazine — I think it was the 4H or the Boys and Girls Clubs of America magazine — and there was column in the back about this guy, Dr. Cory. I fell in love with the idea of being the next Dr. Cory! But it didn’t last past middle school.
PGN: What turned you off of it?
COW: It wasn’t so much that I turned away from it but more like I turned towards something else: music. It wasn’t until high school that I realized that I could actually study music as a vocation and make a career from it. It was my choral teacher who suggested that I audition as a music major. Until then, I had no idea that I could actually do that.
PGN: Where did you go to college?
COW: I got both my undergrad and my master’s at Ithaca College but spent a little time between the two studying music in Boston at the New England Conservatory.
PGN: Was it exclusively opera or all types of music?
COW: I studied everything. In undergrad, I was a double major in music and music education with a composition minor. With those programs, you study everything from music theory to choral music to opera to orchestral music — the gamut. But most of my studies were in the classical-music tradition.
PGN: What did you do after graduation?
COW: I moved to Boston and got a lot of stage time in regional musical theater. I auditioned for just about everything I could that would get me on the stage and keep me singing. I later started breaking into the opera world but there was a lot of musical theater early on.
PGN: What brought you to Philadelphia?
COW: My (now) husband got a job here. Being that I’m a musician, I can work anywhere so I moved here with my love.
PGN: What’s a favorite role that you’ve played, and what’s your dream role?
COW: Hmmm, the favorite role that I’ve played would be Richie Walters from “A Chorus Line.” I know it’s not classical, it’s not opera, but it’s my favorite role that I’ve played. Dream role would be Radames from “Aida.”
PGN: What was your most difficult moment on stage?
COW: When I was playing Richie, I got laryngitis. Even though it was musical theater and not opera, it’s still a very demanding role vocally. Getting through it with laryngitis was not fun at ALL. I’d be surprised if I managed to get out 2 of the notes in key the whole run.
PGN: When did you come out?
COW: I was fortunate to have a pretty easy experience. I came out to my friends first and they were very open and accepting. I don’t think it was a big surprise to anyone. With my family, I didn’t know it at the time but apparently over the years many of them had defended my honor when anyone had made any disparaging comments about me. I came out to my parents after college because I felt it was something I needed to say officially and when I told my mom she said, “It’s no problem, we already know.” So my coming out was … hmmm.
PGN: Uneventful?
COW: I wouldn’t say that completely because when I sat down to talk to my mom I cried, of course, because that’s who I am. I don’t know why, because I wasn’t expecting her to be anything but accepting, but it still was a big moment for me. I remember my heart pounding and it was powerful nonetheless.
PGN: When and where did you meet your husband John?
COW: We met in 2006 in New York while we were both in grad school. I was at Ithaca and he was going to Cornell.
PGN: What was it about him that first caught your fancy?
COW: The first thing I remember was that he asked me a lot of questions about musical theater. And when we went on our first date he was probably the smartest person I’d ever spoken to and that just knocked me over.
PGN: How long were you together before you got married?
COW: We got engaged a year after we met. I proposed and then we got married 10 years later.
PGN: Who popped the question?
COW: I did. Apparently John had been dropping a lot of hints that went right over my head. When I finally caught on, I put a ring in his glass of champagne and asked him to marry him. He said yes.
PGN: Let’s talk about your alter ego, Cookie!
COW: Yes! Cookie Diorio, the Queen of Gospel. She was created as a part of the theater company I created here in Philadelphia as a way to host an informal classical music salon-type experience. She was initially Cookie Darling and then she had a name change to Cookie Diorio.
PGN: And how did Cookie fit into your life?
COW: I’d always been in awe of the art of drag and drag queens and always been fascinated with make-up and fancy costumes. I started doing drag when I was in my early 20s in Boston under several other names that didn’t stick. So drag is something that I always loved and wanted to do. Cookie is the first time that I combined two of my loves — drag and classical music — together in the same space. Suddenly everything made complete sense to me.
PGN: And what is she like?
COW: She’s a very sophisticated lady. She likes opera and gospel but she’s not afraid to step into the dangerous areas of life like jazz and blues and pop. She aspires to be an actor. She likes fancy gowns and lots of sequins and plenty of champagne.
PGN: And she’s a tall drink of bubbly …
COW: Yes she is. With heels and hair she’s about 7-feet tall!
PGN: Tell me about the show.
COW: “Fire In My Bones: A Gospel Jubilee” is a program inspired by the tradition of Southern gospel music, specifically Mahalia Jackson. She’s my favorite singer of all time and I’ve always wanted to sing the music that she did so I transcribed a number of her pieces for the program. They’re sacred songs about hope and love and community and light.
PGN: Something truly needed right now.
COW: Yes, it’s a very inspirational program. These are the songs that I listen to when I need to get out of a rut and tap into some happiness. I love sharing them with people.
PGN: And I understand that you’re sharing the proceeds as well.
COW: Yes, the concert is a benefit and a portion of the proceeds will go to The Attic Youth Center.
PGN: What hobbies do you have outside of the music world?
COW: I’m very boring, I don’t think I have any.
PGN: I don’t buy that!
COW: Well, I used to consider drag a hobby but now it’s more. I love watching movies and playing games. Oh, and I love camping.
PGN: There you go. What’s the most adventurous thing that’s happened when camping? Been chased by a bear?
COW: No, but we were surrounded by wolves. We were in Indiana (I think) at a giant park and it was at the end of the season so there was no one there. In fact it was just John, myself and a park ranger. So we pretty much had the entire state forest to ourselves. We set up our camp, nightfall came and we started a fire and we began to hear what sounded like dogs all around us. The sounds were coming from all sides so I just kept telling myself, It’s just some neighbor’s dogs howling and barking at some animals. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But I knew they were wolves.
PGN: Your favorite brush with fame?
COW: My senior year of undergrad, the famous African-American opera singer Barbara Conrad played Marcellina in “Marriage of Figaro” and I got to be in the chorus. That was exciting.
PGN: What was your favorite childhood toy?
COW: My very first bike was a very, very small bike with training wheels and a Spiderman emblem on the side with these big tires that never went flat. I still have it! I made my mom keep it all these years.
PGN: Who should play you in your life story?
COW: Jaden Smith.
PGN: Something on your bucket list?
COW: To travel to Europe.
PGN: Ha. I’ll start stocking up the Valium. If heaven exists, what do you want to hear when you arrive at the pearly gates?
COW: Mahalia Jackson singing to welcome me.
“Fire In My Bones” is 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Drive. For more information or tickets, visit www.cookiediorio.com.
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