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Valerie Coleman | |
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| Origin | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Genres | Classical,Jazz,Soul |
| Occupations | Composer, Flutist, Educator |
| Instruments | Flute |
| Years active | 1997-present |
| Labels | Naxos Records Blue Note Records E1 Music |
| Website | VColemanMusic.com |
Valerie Coleman is an Americancomposer andflutist as well as the creator of thewind quintetImani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was namedPerformance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post.[1] In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work,Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by thePhiladelphia Orchestra. Coleman'sUmoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.[2][3]
Coleman is known for her many contributions to windchamber music and with Imani Winds, she released a number of studio albums with the group, one of which was nominated forGrammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2005.[4][5]
A graduate ofMannes College of Music and taught by musicians such asJulius Baker, her compositions frequently incorporate diverse styles such asjazz withclassical music and often incorporate political or social themes. Her pieceUmoja in 2002 was listed as one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" byChamber Music America.[6][1] She is an alumna of theChamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Fellowship program, and a laureate of theConcert Artists Guild competition.
Valerie Coleman was born 3 September 1970 and raised inLouisville, Kentucky, in the same West Endinner city neighborhood that boxerMuhammad Ali grew up in.[7] Her father died when she was nine, and her mother raised Coleman and her sisters as a single working mother.[8]
From early childhood, Coleman had a love for music and a great interest in playing the flute. She started her formal music education in fourth grade,[8] at age eleven.[7] During her early years as a young musician, Coleman was interested in composing music. She started writing symphonies as a hobby,[8] using aportable organ that she had at her home.[9] By age fourteen she had written three full-length symphonies and won several local and state competitions,[6] as well as participating as a flutist in youth orchestra.[8] She is a graduate ofLouisville Male High School.
Coleman and all her sisters attended college, and she earned[10] a doubleB.A. intheory/composition andflute performance fromBoston University. She then graduated with amaster's degree in flute performance fromMannes College of Music. Coleman studied flute withJulius Baker,Alan Weiss, Judith Mendenhall, Doriot Dwyer, andMark Sparks, and composition with Martin Amlin andRandall Woolf.[6]
In 1996, while still a student, Coleman began planning achamber music ensemble.[11] She chose the nameImani Winds, Imani being theSwahili word for faith,[10] and sought African Americanwoodwind players who might approachclassical music from a similar cultural background.[11] About her reasons for starting the ensemble:
I used to be in the youth orchestra [as a child], and there were so many African Americans. But somewhere along the line, when I got to college, I was the only one in the orchestra. So I wondered what in the world happened here? It came to my mind that role models are needed.
The group grew to five people, with Coleman on flute, Toyin Spellman-Diaz onoboe, Monica Ellis onbassoon, Mariam Adam onclarinet, and Jeff Scott onfrench horn.[8] From the beginning the ensemble focused on "championing composers that were underrepresented from the non-European side of contemporary music."[11] The repertoire frequently involves music that is inspired by many different cultures including influences from the music of Africa, Latin America and North America.[10]
In 2001 the group won theConcert Artists Guild competition,[10] and over the following years released five albums internationally on theE1 Music label (formerly known as Koch International Classics), with many of those tracks composed by Coleman herself.[7] About their musicianship, theNew Orleans Times Picayune stated, "As an ensemble, the Imani Winds cultivate the big, rich sound one associates with classical players -- and they also display the daring, respond in-the moment qualities one associates with a swinging jazz combo."[4]
The ensemble was named resident-artists ofChamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has appeared in major concert halls throughout the United States.[10] The ensemble has won awards from Artists International and the 2005ASCAP/WQXR-FM Award for Adventurous Programming, and were honored at the 2007 ASCAP Concert Music Awards.[7]
NPR Music named their albumTerra Incognita one of the "5 Best American Contemporary Classical Albums Of 2010," saying "Imani Winds' members have earned a reputation for expanding the recorded wind-quintet repertoire, but in a way that's culturally significant."[4] According to theCleveland Classical, "Imani Winds have carved a unique path into the world of classical chamber music for themselves through inventive programs, commissioning projects, and educational activities, and above all superb musicianship."[4]
In 2009 Coleman conceived and created the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, which is both an institute and chamber music series on theLincoln Center Campus in New York City.[12] The festival attracts artists from the US and abroad.
In 2012 composers were added to the roster through the Emerging Composers Program. It involved master classes with composers such asMohammed Fairouz andDaniel Bernard Roumain,[12][13] and the panel of guest artists included Stefon Harris,Paula Robison, Carol Wincenc, andStanley Drucker.[12]
Coleman made her debut as a flutist and composer atCarnegie Hall in 2004,[9] and prior to that was the understudy for flutistEugenia Zukerman at Lincoln Center. Coleman was also a featured soloist in theMannes College of Music's Mannes 2000 Bach Festival.[6] She has had performances and premieres atAlice Tully Hall,Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,The Kennedy Center,Chamber Music Northwest, andPhiladelphia Chamber Music Society.[7]
Her compositions and performances receive regular play on classical radio stations in the United States,[7] and she has been showcased on the New York classical radio stationWQXR.[6] She also appeared onNPR'sPerformance Today,All Things Considered, andThe Ed Gordon Show;WNYC'sSoundcheck, and MPR'sSaint Paul Sunday.[7] In April 2008 she was featured inFlutist Quarterly.[9]
She has received commissions from theSan Francisco Chamber Orchestra,Brooklyn Philharmonic, The National Flute Association, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, College Band Director's National Association, West Michigan Flute Association, and The Flute and Clarinet Duos Consortium.[7]
She has been a teacher for theChamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, has served on the faculty of theJuilliard School's Music Advancement Program and Interschool Orchestras of New York.[6] She's given flute masterclasses atSUNY Purchase,Columbus State,UMass Amherst,Ohio State,Ithaca College,Utah State,Norfolk State, andHampton University,[7] She has also been a composer/flutist in residence with Young Audiences NYC, and completed a mentorship with theBrooklyn Philharmonic.[7] Coleman is on the advisory panel of theNational Flute Association.[6]
Coleman is the resident composer of Imani Winds, though the ensemble also incorporates the work of other members and composers. Coleman's style mixes modern orchestration with genres includingjazz andAfro-Cuban.[7] She has added a number of works to theflute repertory, also contributing to the literature forwind quintet, fullorchestra,woodwinds,brass, and strings, many of which have been published by International Opus.
As a flute player, Valerie Coleman has composed many works that have become a standard part of the flute repertoire. One of these pieces includeDanza de la Mariposa. This work is a tone poem written for solo flute and was inspired by the various types of butterflies that live across South America.[14] Coleman also composedAmazonia, a piece for flute and piano. This piece begins by portraying the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. However, the music starts to portray darker themes throughout the composition, which represent the corrupting and destructive influence humans have on the Amazon rainforest.[15]
She often interposes music with the words of historical figures and poets, in some cases using manipulated speeches of people of diverse asRobert F. Kennedy,A. Philip Randolph andCesar Chavez.[16]
About her world premiere ofPainted Lady, a set of two songs for orchestra and soprano and her first commission,The Hartford Courant said "The songs are luminous works, with a tangy but accessible harmonic language, graced with a humanizing sense of melodic line and a mildly exotic rhythmic lilt. They are the work of a major talent, and they should be recorded immediately."[16] The songs used words by African American poetMargaret Danner.[16]
Her signature wind quintet pieceUmoja (named for theSwahili word for "unity") in 2002 was listed as one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" byChamber Music America.[6]Umoja was originally composed for a women's choir in celebration of the first day of Kwanzaa. Since then, Coleman has arrangedUmoja with a wide variety of instrumentation. This includes an arrangement for flute quartet, wind trio, brass quintet, and string quartet.[17] Additionally,Umoja was arranged for orchestra and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2019. This marks the first time the Philadelphia Orchestra performed a work by a living African American female composer.[18]Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot in 2007 traced the lifeJosephine Baker,[8] receiving a positive review inThe Philadelphia Inquirer.[16]
In 2018, Coleman was appointed as Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship; and Director of the Chamber Music program at Frost School of Music, at the University of Miami (FL).[19]
In 2021, Coleman was appointed a Clara Mannes Fellow within the Flute Performance and Music Composition faculty at Mannes School of Music, at The New School in New York City.[20]
In 2024, Coleman was appointed to the composition department faculty effective in the 2024–25 academic year at theJuilliard School in New York City.[21]
| Year | Category | Song/album | Label | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Best Classical Crossover Album | The Classical Underground | Koch Int'l Classics | Nominated |
Coleman lives with her husband, Jonathan Page, and daughter, Lisa.[7]
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