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Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman is the founder, flutist and resident composer of the Grammy nominated Imani Winds. Through her music and vision, she has created a legacy of innovation that breaks down cultural and social barriers in classical music.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Coleman began her music studies at the late age of eleven. By the age of fourteen, she had already written three full-length symphonies and had won a number of local and state flute competitions. Today, her works and performances are heard regularly on Classical radio stations throughout the country: Sirius XM, NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and The Ed Gordon Show; WNYC’s Soundcheck, MPR’s Saint Paul Sunday, and globally through Radio France. Recently, Coleman took on a new challenge of being the Artistic Director of her own creation, The Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, a highly successful summer training series and institute in New York City that serves as an advocate for aspiring musicians and young composers.

She is best known for Imani Winds’ signature piece Umoja, which was listed as one of the “Top 101 Great American Works” by Chamber Music America. Many of her contributions to wind literature are considered standard modern repertoire and are performed by ensembles globally. Commissions and/or highlight performances of her works include a Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra 2001, New Haven Symphony, Composer’s Concordance Festival Orchestra, Music of NOW at Symphony Space Thalia, Wigmore Hall in London, The Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, among many others. Awards include the Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award, Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Music Festival (inaugural recipient), The Sally Van Lier Memorial Award, and the Multi-Arts Production Fund (MAPFUND). As both composer and flutist, she has been featured as a guest artist at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Chenango Music Festival, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and Alice Tully Hall among several others.

Currently, she serves on the New Music Advisory Committee of National Flute Association, the Classical Connections Committee of Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), serves as an Artistic Advisor for the Hartt School at the University of Connecticut, and is on the boards of the COR Music Project, and Composer’s Concordance. She is published by Theodore Presser International Opus, and maintains her own publishing company, V Coleman Music. Valerie currently resides in New York City with her husband Jonathan Page and baby daughter Lisa.


https://www.newschool.edu/performing-arts/faculty/valerie-coleman-page/

  • College of Performing Arts Faculty

  • Valerie Coleman-Page

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    vcoleman@newschool.edu

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    Valerie Coleman-Page

    Profile

    Valerie Coleman-Page is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy® nominated visionary who commands a multi-faceted career as both flutist and composer. Recently named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year, she is the flutist of the contemporary ensemble, Umama Womama, an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program (formerly known as CMS Two), laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition, and the creator/former flutist of the ensemble Imani Winds.

    Throughout her early career, her flute teachers, Julius Baker (New York Philharmonic), Doriot Anthony Dwyer Dwyer (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Leone Buyse (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Mark Sparks (Baltimore and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras), Kathleen Karr (Louisville Orchestra), and Judith Mendenhall (American Ballet Theatre) all played a critical role in Coleman’s development as a hybrid artist through orchestral study. It was Doriot Dwyer who bestowed upon her the honor of being the inaugural Michelle E. Sahm award, which allowed her to attend the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), and proved to be pivotal in shaping her career. She would later be featured at BUTI as a guest artist for multiple seasons.

    Valerie is a Yamaha flute artist, an artist-in-residence with The Juilliard School Music Advancement Program, and is known to be a highly sought-after recitalist and clinician with a reputation of transformative skill. She has given masterclasses and performances at several top institutions, summer music festivals, flute festivals and more, including Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin College, Cleveland Institute, Spoleto USA, Mannes School of Music, Rice University, University of Chicago, Ravinia Festival, Music at Angelfire, Chautauqua Institution, Banff, Interlochen Arts Academy, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair, Mid-South Flute Festival, San Diego, Austin, Portland and Seattle flute festivals, and many more. Her work as a recording artist features an extensive discography with Imani Winds, with legendary artists like Wayne Shorter Quartet, Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance, Chick Corea, the Brubeck Brothers, Edward Simon, Jason Moran, René Marie, and Mohammed Fairouz, on the record labels Naxos, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, eOne and Cedille Records. Her music is also featured on several albums by notable artists, including the McGill/McHale Trio, clarinetist David Shifrin, and flutist Jennie Oh Brown. Her performances and compositions can be heard regularly “on the air" at Sirius XM, NPR, WNYC, WQXR and Minnesota Public Radio and abroad including RadioFrance, Australian Broadcast Company, and Radio NZ.

    Valerie is listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” by the Washington Post, and has recently become the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the first with the Metropolitan Opera. She has received the Herb Alpert Awards Ragdale Prize, Van Lier Fellowship, MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, among others. Her work, UMOJA, was listed by Chamber Music America as one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works”. Alongside her work with the Philadelphia Orchestra, her multi-faceted career has led her and her works to be featured with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New Haven Symphony, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, The Atlanta Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Library of Congress, New York Philharmonic, Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI). Her performances at Music at Angelfire, Banff, Spoleto USA, Bravo! Vail, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center, Coleman Chamber Music Association, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, DaCamara Houston, LaJolla Music Festival, Coleman Chamber Music Association, Chamber Music Yellow Springs, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and many more have featured performance collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D’Rivera, David Shifrin, Orion String Quartet, Harlem Quartet, Miami String Quartet, Dover Quartet, pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Wu Han, Gil Kalish, Shai Wosner, Jon Nakamura, Edward Simon, Danilo Perez, Alex Brown, and Chick Corea, among many others. Recent commissions include Sphinx Virtuosi, Bravo! Vail Festival, The Library of Congress, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, National Flute Association, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Chamber Music America/OboeBass! Duo, University of Michigan, and Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

    A cornerstone to her work is the advocacy and mentorship of artists and emerging ensembles, and she has immensely enjoyed their success stories. In 2011, she created the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, a summer mentorship program in NYC that has welcomed musicians from over 100 institutions globally. She has also served as an adjudicator for National Flute Association’s High School Artist Competition, Concert Artist Guild Victor E. Elmaleh Competition, APAP’s Young Performing Concert Artists fellowship, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Award, MapFund Award, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She is on the board of advisors for Composers Now, Sphinx LEAD, Composers Concordance, and has previously served on the APAP’s Classical Connections Committee, National Flute Association’s New Music Advisory Committee and Board Nomination Committee.

    Valerie is published by Theodore Presser, and her own company, VColeman Music.

    Future Courses

    CoPA Flute Ensemble
    CAPR 5330, Spring 2022


https://www.oaklandsymphony.org/artist/valerie-coleman/

Valerie Coleman

composer

“Described as one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by critic Anne Midgette of the Washington Post, Valerie Coleman (B. 1970) is among the world’s most played composers living today. Whether it be live or via radio, her compositions are easily recognizable for their inspired style and can be throughout venues, institutions and competitions globally. The Boston Globe describes Coleman as a having a “talent for delineating form and emotion with shifts between ingeniously varied instrumental combinations” and The New York Times observes her compositions as “skillfully wrought, buoyant music”. With works that range from flute sonatas that recount the stories of trafficked humans during Middle Passage and orchestral and chamber works based on nomadic Roma tribes, to scherzos about moonshine in the Mississippi Delta region and motifs based from Morse Code, her body of works have been highly regarded as a deeply relevant contribution to modern music.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Valerie began her music studies at the age of eleven and by the age of fourteen, had written three symphonies and won several local and state performance competitions. She is the founder, creator, and former flutist of the Grammy® nominated Imani Winds, one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Miami. Through her creations and performances, Valerie has carved a unique path for her artistry, while much of her music is considered to be standard repertoire. She is perhaps best known for UMOJA, a composition that is widely recognized and was listed by Chamber Music America one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works”. Coleman has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra, The Library of Congress, the Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Virginia Tech University, Virginia Commonwealth University, National Flute Association, West Michigan Flute Society, Orchestra 2001, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Interlochen Arts Academy to name a few.

With over two decades of conducting masterclasses, lectures and clinics across the country, Valerie is a highly sought-after clinician and recitalist. Recently, she has immensely enjoyed being the featured guest artist of flute fairs around the country, such as Mid-South, South Carolina, Colorado, New Jersey, and Mid-Atlantic, and was also featured as an artist in residence at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, LunArts Festival, and the National Women’s Music Festival. Future appearances include Florida Flute Society, Portland, Seattle, Long Island and North Carolina Flute Fairs, and residencies at Yale, University of North Dakota, Virginia Tech, and many more. With her ensemble, she was recently an artist-in-residence at Mannes College of Music, served on the faculty of Banff Chamber Music Intensive and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago. She is regularly featured as a performer and composer within many of the world’s great concert venues, series and conservatories: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall, DaCamera Houston, Boston Celebrity Series, Krannert Center, Wigmore Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, The Juilliard School, The Eastman School, Curtis, Peabody, Mannes, The Colburn School and countless more. She has recorded with Wayne Shorter, Paquito D’Rivera, Jason Moran, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Stefon Harris, Chick Corea and more. She and her ensemble have enjoyed collaborations with Gil Kalish, Paula Robison, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne Marie McDermott, Alexa Still, Ani and Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, Wu Han, Simon Shaheen, Sam Rivers and many more. Her music is frequently “on the air” with National and local Classical radio stations and their affiliates: Sirius XM, NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and The Ed Gordon Show; WNYC’s Soundcheck, and MPR’s Saint Paul Sunday. She has received awards and/or honors from the National Flute Association, The Herb Alpert Awards, MAPFUND, ASCAP Concert Music Awards, NARAS, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, Artists International, Wombwell Kentucky Award, and Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award to name a few.

Valerie is known among educators to be a strong advocate and mentoring source for emerging artists and ensembles around the country. In 2011, she created a summer mentorship program in New York City for highly advanced collegiate and post-graduate musicians, called Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. Now in it’s 9th season, the festival has welcomed musicians from over 100 institutions both national and abroad. Her works are published by Theodore Presser, International Opus, and her own company, V Coleman Music. Her music can be heard on labels: Cedille Records, BMG France, Sony Classics, Eone (formerly Koch International Classics) and Naxos.”

 
https://www.juilliard.edu/news/150356/juilliards-music-advancement-program-map-welcomes-flutist-and-composer-valerie-coleman

Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) Welcomes Flutist and Composer Valerie Coleman for Residency in 2021-22  

Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Press Release

NEW YORK–– Flutist and composer Valerie Coleman will join Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) for a residency in 2021-22 through American Composers Forum (ACF) and its BandQuest commission and residency program. During the 2021-22 school year, Coleman will work with the young musicians of MAP in a residency that will include workshops, conversations, performances, chamber coachings, and full ensemble collaboration. A culminating piece, co-created by Coleman with the MAP students, will receive its world premiere in New York City in the spring.

“I am honored and thrilled to be working alongside Juilliard and American Composers Forum in this exciting venture,” Coleman said. “The opportunities and resources provided to young musicians by these organizations have been invaluable to ensure that the vibrancy and enthusiasm for music playing within students remain strong throughout their young careers.” Coleman, who has served on the MAP faculty, said she looks forward to “reconnecting with the program and spending time with the students during this residency, and to create a work that celebrates and bolsters their artistic potential.”

While Coleman has had a long relationship with MAP, this new collaboration with ACF was the result of conversations about how a composer could be integrated into the preparatory program to foster creativity and deepen students’ learning.

“The Music Advancement Program is excited to participate in American Composers Forum’s BandQuest residency with the amazing Valerie Coleman,” said Weston Sprott, dean of Juilliard’s Preparatory Division. “Valerie’s return to Juilliard—to create a work for our wind ensemble, teach our students in composition and chamber music, and inspire our community in numerous other ways—promises to be a highlight of the school year.”

ACF president and CEO Vanessa Rose said that this “expansion of BandQuest enables ACF to work with several elements of a program like MAP that is dedicated to transformative work: bringing together students studying different areas of music in the spirit of creation, providing an opportunity to pilot a composer-in-residence, and inspiring the student’s ecosystem around them to work and play with a living composer. We are excited to follow the tremendous impact making music with Valerie will have on the students, and their community.”

For more than 20 years, ACF’s BandQuest program has enabled established music creators to collaborate with school band programs on creating a new musical work. The resulting pieces of music are published by ACF and distributed exclusively by Hal Leonard Corporation.

About Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy -nominated flutist and composer. She is an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Fellowship program, laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition, American Public Radio’s 2020 classical woman of the year, and the creator of the ensemble Imani Winds. Listed as one of the top 35 women composers in the Washington Post, Coleman was the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and was a composer in residence for Orchestra of St. Luke’s five-borough tour. In addition to having had performances of her music by the likes of the St. Louis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, New World Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and Utah Symphony, she has received the Herb Alpert Awards Ragdale Prize, Van Lier Fellowship, MAP Fund, and ASCAP Honors Award, among others. Her work UMOJA was listed by Chamber Music America as one of the top 101 great American ensemble works. In addition to multiple commissions from Carnegie Hall, she’s had commissions from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, National Flute Association, and Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Her work as a recording artist features an extensive discography with Imani Winds and appearances on albums by Wayne Shorter Quartet, Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance, Chick Corea, the Brubeck Brothers, Edward Simon, and Mohammed Fairouz on the labels Naxos, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, eOne and Cedille Records. Her compositions and performances are regularly on the air domestically at Sirius XM, NPR, WNYC, WQXR, and Minnesota Public Radio and abroad including through RadioFrance, Australian Broadcast Company, and Radio NZ. Coleman is a highly sought-after recitalist and multidisciplinary clinician with a reputation of transformative skill. She’s had master classes and performances at institutions including Juilliard, Eastman School of Music, Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin College, University of Chicago, and Interlochen Arts Academy. Valerie Coleman is a Yamaha Flute Artist. vcolemanmusic.com

About Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP)

Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) is a Saturday program for intermediate and advanced music students from New York City’s five boroughs and the tristate area who demonstrate a commitment to artistic excellence. The program actively seeks students from diverse backgrounds underrepresented in the classical music field and is committed to enrolling the most talented and deserving students regardless of their financial background. Through a rigorous curriculum, performance opportunities, and guidance from an accomplished faculty, MAP students gain the necessary skills to pursue advanced music studies while developing their talents as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Approximately 70 students are enrolled in MAP, which is led by Artistic Director Anthony McGill.

MAP is generously supported through an endowed gift in memory of Carl K. Heyman.

(ACF) supports and advocates for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We connect artists with collaborators, organizations, audiences, and resources. Through storytelling, publications, recordings, hosted gatherings, and industry leadership, we activate equitable opportunities for artists. We provide direct funding and mentorship to a broad and diverse field of music creators, highlighting those who have been historically excluded from participation.

Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on racial equity and includes within that scope, but not limited to, diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of being “American.” 

Visit composersforum.org and composersforum.org/bandquest/ for more information.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov. Additional support is provided by the I.A. O'Shaughnessy Foundation.
 
https://utahsymphony.org/explore/2020/09/valerie-coleman-afro-and-danza-from-afro-cuban-concerto-for-wind-quintet/ 

24 September 2020

VALERIE COLEMAN: “Afro” and “Danza” from Afro-Cuban Concerto for Wind Quintet

by Michael Clive

Utah Symphony.org

Talk about swimming upstream! After centuries of cultural opposition to women in classical music on both sides of the Atlantic, and at a time when the under-representation of women and Black Americans in classical music professions is in the news, Valerie Coleman has overcome these obstacles to become one of the most acclaimed and widely programmed composers of our times. She was named by the syndicated radio program Performance Today as the 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, and was designated as one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by influential music critic Anne Midgette. Both as a composer and an articulate voice for change, Valerie Coleman is a major voice for music and for change.

Whether live or on broadcast, Coleman’s compositions are easily recognizable for their inspired style and can be throughout venues, institutions and competitions globally. The Boston Globe described Coleman as a having a “talent for delineating form and emotion with shifts between ingeniously varied instrumental combinations,” and The New York Times observed that her compositions are “skillfully wrought, buoyant music”.  With works that range from flute sonatas that recount the stories of trafficked humans during Middle Passage and orchestral and chamber works based on nomadic Roma tribes, to scherzos about moonshine in the Mississippi Delta region and motifs based from Morse Code, her body of works have been highly regarded as a deeply relevant contribution to modern music.

Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman


A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Coleman began her music studies at the age of eleven and by the age of fourteen, had written three symphonies and won several local and state performance competitions. She is the founder, creator, and former flutist of the Grammy® nominated Imani Winds, one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Through her creations and performances, Valerie has carved a unique path for her artistry, while much of her music is considered to be standard repertoire. She is perhaps best known for UMOJA, a composition that is widely recognized and was listed by Chamber Music America one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works”. ​Coleman has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra, The Library of Congress, the Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Virginia Tech University, Virginia Commonwealth University, National Flute Association, West Michigan Flute Society, Orchestra 2001, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Interlochen Arts Academy to name a few.
 
With over two decades of conducting masterclasses, lectures and clinics across the country,  Valerie is a highly sought-after clinician and recitalist. Recently, she has immensely enjoyed being the featured guest artist of flute fairs around the country.
 

V. Coleman: Concerto For Wind Quintet: Afro

Imani Winds:classical Underground ℗ Imani Winds: Classical Underground,

Released on: 2005-01-25

 
V. Coleman:  Concerto For Wind Quintet: Danza
Imani Winds Imani Winds: Classical Underground ℗ Imani Winds: Classical Underground, The Released on: 2005-01-25

Coleman’s Afro-Cuban Concerto interweaves musical sources from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean to unique and irresistible effect. The Los Angeles Times described the result as an “engaging showpiece, deftly woven polyrhythmic lines — suggesting the pulse of Cuban clave and even James Brown.” The Boston Globe cited Coleman’s “talent for delineating form and emotion with shifts between ingeniously varied instrumental combinations,” and The New York Times hailed her compositions as “skillfully wrought, buoyant music.” Not to be outdone, critic Steve Metcalf of the Hartford Courant called her as “The composer who almost made me forget Mozart”.

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"Afro” and “Danza” from Afro-Cuban Concerto for Wind Quintet| valerie coleman
 
https://www.windrep.org/Valerie_Coleman

Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman

Biography

Valerie Coleman (b. 1970, Louisville, Ky.) is an American composer and flautist.

Ms. Coleman began her music studies at the age of eleven, and by the age of fourteen had written three symphonies and won several local and state competitions. She has a double bachelor’s degree in theory/composition and flute performance from Boston University, and a master’s degree in flute performance from the Mannes College of Music. She studied flute with Julius Baker, Alan Weiss, and Mark Sparks; and composition with Martin Amlin and Randall Woolf.

She is not only the founder of Imani Winds, but is a resident composer of the ensemble, giving Imani Winds their signature piece Umoja (which is listed as one of the “Top 101 Great American Works” by Chamber Music America). In addition to her significant contributions to wind quintet literature, Valerie has a works list for various winds, brass, strings and full orchestra.

Her work as a composer has garnered several awards such as the Herb Alpert Awards Ragdale Prize, Van Lier Fellowship, MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, Chamber Music America's Classical Commissioning Program, an induction into her high school's hall of fame, and nominations from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and United States Artists.

Ms. Coleman has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and Interschool Orchestras of New York. Currently, she is on the advisory panel of the National Flute Association.

Works for Winds

Resources

 
https://www.flutenewmusicconsortium.com/valerie-coleman-commission.html 
 

                                       

UPCOMING PROJECT


Flute and Piano Commission from Valerie Coleman

Duration: 8-12 minutes

​Premiere Week: January 17-26, 2020


About the Composer

Picture


Described as one of the "Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music" by critic Anne Midgette of the Washington Post, Valerie Coleman (B. 1970) is among the world's most played composers living today. Whether it be live or via radio, her compositions are easily recognizable for their inspired style and can be throughout venues, institutions and competitions globally. The Boston Globe describes Coleman as a having a “talent for delineating form and emotion with shifts between ingeniously varied instrumental combinations” and The New York Times observes her compositions as “skillfully wrought, buoyant music”. With works that range from flute sonatas that recount the stories of trafficked humans during Middle Passage and orchestral and chamber works based on nomadic Roma tribes, to scherzos about moonshine in the Mississippi Delta region and motifs based from Morse Code, her body of works have been highly regarded as a deeply relevant contribution to modern music.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Valerie began her music studies at the age of eleven and by the age of fourteen, had written three symphonies and won several local and state performance competitions. Today, she is the founder, composer and flutist of the Grammy® nominated Imani Winds, one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles. Through her creations and performances, Valerie has carved a unique path for her artistry, while much of her music is considered to be standard repertoire. She is perhaps best known for UMOJA, a composition that is widely recognized and was listed by Chamber Music America one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works”.

Valerie is regularly featured as a performer and composer within many of the world’s great concert venues, series and conservatories: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall, DaCamera Houston, Boston Celebrity Series, Krannert Center, Wigmore Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, The Juilliard School, The Eastman School, Curtis, Peabody, Mannes, The Colburn School and countless more. As a flutist, she has recorded with Wayne Shorter, Paquito D’Rivera, Jason Moran, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Stefon Harris, Chick Corea and more. She and her ensemble have enjoyed collaborations with Gil Kalish, Paula Robison, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne Marie McDermott, Alexa Still, Ani and Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, Wu Han, Simon Shaheen, Sam Rivers and many more. Her music is frequently “on the air" with National and local Classical radio stations and their affiliates: Sirius XM, NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and The Ed Gordon Show; WNYC’s Soundcheck, and MPR’s Saint Paul Sunday. She has received awards and/or honors from the National Flute Association, The Herb Alpert Awards, MAPFUND, ASCAP Concert Music Awards, NARAS, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, Artists International, Wombwell Kentucky Award, and Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award to name a few. Coleman has received commissions from the Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Virginia Tech University, Virginia Commonwealth University, National Flute Association, West Michigan Flute Society, Orchestra 2001, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Interlochen Arts Academy to name a few.

With over two decades of conducting masterclasses, lectures and clinics across the country, Valerie is a highly sought-after clinician and recitalist. With her ensemble, she was recently an artist-in-residence at Mannes College of Music, served on the faculty of Banff Chamber Music Intensive and is currently a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago. She is known among educators to be a strong advocate for diversity in the arts and continues to be a mentoring source of inspiration to emerging artists. In 2011, she created a summer mentorship program in New York City for highly advanced collegiate and post-graduate musicians, called Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. Now in it’s seventh season, the festival has welcomed musicians from over 100 institutions both national and abroad. Her works are published by Theodore Presser, International Opus, and her own company, V Coleman Music. Her music can be heard on labels: Cedille Records, BMG France, Sony Classics, Eone (formerly Koch International Classics) and Naxos.
 


https://news.miami.edu/frost/stories/2019/03/valerie-coleman-womens-month.html


Women’s History Month Spotlight: Valerie Coleman

March is Women’s History Month. In celebration, we spotlight one of the newest members of the Frost faculty family - internationally acclaimed composer, performer, and flutist, Valerie Coleman. Coleman joined the Frost School of Music in Fall 2018 as Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship. She also serves as Entrepreneurship and Development Mentor for the Frost Stamps Scholar Ensembles.



Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship & Entrepreneurship and Development Mentor for the Frost Stamps Scholar Ensembles

March is Women’s History Month. In celebration, we spotlight one of the newest members of the Frost faculty family - internationally acclaimed composer, performer, and flutist, Valerie Coleman. Coleman joined the Frost School of Music in Fall 2018 as Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship. She also serves as Entrepreneurship and Development Mentor for the Frost Stamps Scholar Ensembles.



A creative force in contemporary classical music, Coleman is dedicated to empowering women composers. She was cited by Washington Post critic, Anne Midgette, as one of the top 35 female composers in classical music. The list also includes two recent Frost Distinguished Composers in Residence, Augusta Read Thomas and Melinda Wagner.

Valerie Coleman is one of the world's most performed living composers. Her works have been highly regarded as a deeply relevant contribution to modern music. She is regularly featured as a performer and composer at many of the great concert venues, series and conservatories internationally. She is also the founder of the Grammy-nominated quintet, Imani Winds, one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles, named for the Swahili word “faith.”

Coleman says, “It’s an exciting time for women composers who are taking initiative to create their own thing. As women composers of the past are starting to be recognized for their works and the sacrifices they made, there’s an emergence of so many current female composers advocating for themselves and each other to have their voices heard.”

One such composer is Italian-born Paola Prestini (b. 1976), co-founder and artistic director of National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY, a non-profit music venue supporting emerging artists who are reshaping the landscape of new music. When Prestini initiated a power meeting to further the livelihood of new music by women composers, Coleman was invited to the table. She recalls, “We all sat down for a big meeting at ASCAP’s concert music division to discuss how women can start to move things forward. It seems like a whole lot of things started to happen after that. Now the culture is changing, and we know more about how to support one another.”

Another great source of musical inspiration for Coleman is Afro-Cuban composer, conductor and professor Tania León (b. 1943). “Tania is a force of nature, passionate about music from sun up to sun down, not only about women composers, but also her own Cuban background. Her rhythms are ingenious.” León is founder of Composers Now, an organization that empowers all living composers by celebrating the diversity of their voices and the roles they play in contemporary society.

Coleman describes her 5-year old daughter as an illuminating influence on her compositional process as well. “She allows me to become much more efficient and strategic with my writing time. Watching her grow, and that kind of energy, informs the way I phrase music and charges me in such a way that really inspires me to write.”

Growing up on the west end of Louisville, Kentucky, renowned as Mohammad Ali’s childhood neighborhood, Coleman’s unique artistry was nurtured by her own mother, a strong and positive role model who has been running the same daycare center for the past 54 years. “My mom is the quintessential educator who loves to let a child’s mind unfold and grow. She intuitively provided me exposure to the arts.”

Her mother claims that when Valerie was in the womb, she often played Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral Symphony. “Perhaps that's how it all began,” Coleman chuckles.

Regarded among educators as a passionate advocate for diversity in the arts, Coleman is a mentoring source of inspiration to emerging artists. She advises, “Dream big and take the initiative to be original. Shut out the external and internal voices of doubt. Don’t wait for somebody else to discover you.”

For more on Valerie Coleman

visit:

https://people.miami.edu/profile/vxc352@miami.edu. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/arts/music/caramoor-review-orchestra-of-st-lukes.html

Critic’s Pick
Review: At Caramoor, a Concert Signals Return and Remembrance

The performance, by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, felt like normal again, while the music looked back on a year of upheaval.



PHOTO: The violinist Tai Murray with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Tito Muñoz, at Caramoor on Sunday. Credit: James Estrin/The New York Times

by Anthony Tommasini
June 28, 2021
Orchestra of St. Luke's

NYT Critic's Pick

KATONAH, N.Y. — Before a concert by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on a steamy Sunday afternoon here at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a jubilant James Roe, the ensemble’s executive director, told the audience that these musicians had not presented a live, in-person performance in 472 days.

This return meant more than a mere visit from a Caramoor fixture. In recent months I’ve attended orchestral concerts around New York City. But these events played to very limited, mask-wearing audiences. At Caramoor the capacity wasn’t restricted to a mere 150 or so people. Hardly any of the 400 people in attendance wore masks (only the unvaccinated were asked to do so).

It felt like a real return to normal for classical music.

With its bucolic grounds and open-air Venetian Theater, where most programs are being presented, Caramoor is an ideal venue for summer concerts, especially during this still-challenging time. And it has planned an adventurous summer season, running through Aug. 8. This Orchestra of St. Luke’s program was conducted by Tito Muñoz, the Queens-born music director of the Phoenix Symphony, and offered works that spoke to the larger social issues of the past year.

The afternoon began with the premiere of Valerie Coleman’s “Fanfare for Uncommon Times.” The idea for the piece, as Coleman explained recently in a video interview on the Caramoor site, came from Roe, who invited her to write a piece that grappled not just with the pandemic, but the tumultuous “political landscape,” as she put it.


Caramoor Conversations:
Valerie Coleman, composer

Kathy Schuman, VP & Artistic Director of Caramoor, sits down with Valerie Coleman, composer of 'Fanfare for Uncommon Times' which will receive its World Premiere on June 27 by the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY. https://caramoor.org/event/osl-tito-m...

Yet, hanging over every American composer who writes a fanfare, Coleman said, is Aaron Copland’s iconic 1942 “Fanfare for the Common Man.” In an inspired idea, this 75-minute program, after opening with Coleman’s fanfare, ended with Copland’s, and included, in the middle, Joan Tower’s plucky “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” (1987). In a nod to Copland and Tower, Coleman also scored her piece for brass and percussion.

Yet, while writing something that offered affirmation to people emerging from unimaginably “uncommon times,” Coleman said, as a Black woman she wanted to “bring the Black experience in,” the “turmoil, the upheaval,” the complexity of recent conversations about race in America.

These threads — and the emotions entwined with them — come through vividly in Coleman’s six-minute piece. It begins not with a typical fanfare salute, but a quizzical, searching line for solo trombone that soon is cushioned by pungent, soft-spoken brass chords. Unrest amid determination stirs as the music shifts into agitated episodes for percussion. The mood seems at once reflective and restless, uplifting and ominous. The elements of the Black experience during a challenging time that Coleman described come through during a passage alive with riffs for mallet percussion instruments, hints of dance and bursts of anxious frenzy. By the end, with spurts of four-note brass motifs, echoes of Coplandesque affirmation arise, but also a breathless flurry that feels bracing yet challenging.



The program included a premiere by Valerie Coleman that was put in conversation with Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” and Aaron Copland’s famous “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Credit: James Estrin/The New York Times

It made for a surprisingly good contrast to follow the Coleman with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending,” a “romance,” as the composer described it, for violin and orchestra, with the superb Tai Murray as soloist. This glowing, pastoral, somewhat bittersweet piece is enormously popular, but it doesn’t turn up as often as it should in concerts. Murray’s playing abounded in radiant sound, arching lyricism and delicacy. During moments when the violin writing turns intricate with evocations of fluttering birds, she dispatched the passagework with effortless grace.

Tower’s short, feisty “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman,” dedicated to the pioneering female conductor Marin Alsop, the outgoing director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, is the first in a series of six such fanfares she has written. This short but packed, muscular piece is like a respectful retort to Copland.

Muñoz then led an elegant account of Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” Suite, capturing the melancholy of the music while letting the players cut loose in dancing, near-frantic episodes. And Copland’s fanfare on this day proved the fitting conclusion: a way to usher in a moment that signals a return in more ways than one.

Caramoor

The festival continues through Aug. 8 in Katonah, N.Y.; caramoor.org.

Anthony Tommasini is the chief classical music critic. He writes about orchestras, opera and diverse styles of contemporary music, and he reports regularly from major international festivals. A pianist, he holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. @TommasiniNYT 
 
A version of this article appears in print on June 29, 2021, Section C, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: In a Bucolic Setting, a Normalcy Returns. 
 
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5425259




Music Interviews
Classical Chamber Music Ensemble Imani Winds
May 23, 2006
Heard on News & Notes

Listen:

AUDIO:
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Transcript
 
Flutist/composer Valerie Coleman tells the story of Imani Winds, an all-black chamber music ensemble.


Imani Winds.

Ms. VALERIE COLEMAN (Flutist and Composer): I can remember when I was a little kid. I used to be in the youth orchestra, and there were so many African- Americans in the orchestra. 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.
ED GORDON, host:
That's flutist and composer Valerie Coleman. In 1997, while still a student, Coleman decided to start her own chamber music ensemble. The idea was to gather together some of the best African-American woodwind players around. She called the group Imani Winds.
Here, Valerie Coleman tells the story of Imani Winds.
Ms. COLEMAN: I basically called around. I gave them my whole spiel. One of the things that I asked them was who are your role models? When you were growing up, who were your role models? And, were there any African-Americans as your role model? And the answer was basically no from everyone.
Of course, you had Winton Marsalis, but he plays trumpet and we're woodwind instruments. So I said, well, guys, we have a chance to change that. We really have the opportunity to let people know that classical music is an all- inclusive thing, not exclusive.
That's basically how the group came together. We get into a practice room. It was magic from the very beginning, and I said to myself, this is going to be something.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. TORIN SPELLMAN-DIAZ (Oboe Player, Imani Winds): My name is Torin Spellman- Diaz, and I'm playing the oboe.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. MONICA ELLIS (Bassoon Player, Imani Winds): My name is Monica Ellis. I play the bassoon.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. MARIAM ADAM (Clarinet Player, Inami Winds): My name is Mariam Adam. I play clarinet.
(Soundbite of music)
Mr. JEFF SCOTT (French Horn Player, Imani Winds): I'm Jeff Scott. I play the French horn.
(Soundbite of music)
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. COLEMAN: Imani Winds is, I believe, is a richer sound because of the personalities in the group. And personalities definitely reflect on the individual instruments.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: We're playing a composition that I wrote. It's actually the first movement of this piece that describes Josephine Baker's life. And this movement in particular gives you the setting of St. Louis during the time of 1920.
So this movement is basically describing all of that, and also showing us Josephine Baker as a little girl, the mischievous little girl who used to steal fruit from the stands just so she could have food to eat.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. My mom, she says that when she had me in the womb, that she would play Beethoven Sixth Symphony, the Pastorale Symphony to me all the time. And so, that's how it all began.
(Soundbite of laughter)
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: I remember being a baby, being in the backyard, picking up tree limbs and pretending that it was a flute.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: And then when I started to learn music in elementary school, I immediately started to write it down as I learned how to read music.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: By the time I was in high school, as a hobby, I would write whole symphonies and things like that. You know. Things that normal children don't do.
(Soundbite of laughter)
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: You know, I grew up in Muhammad Ali's neighborhood, the west end of Louisville. And that is about as inner-city as any inner-city can get. And my mom, she raised me right, and she worked hard at it. And, you know, my dad died when I was nine years old, so for the most part, when he died, me and my sisters - you know, my mom became a single mom at that point and she picked up the pieces. And somehow, she sent us all to college and just pulled it together and made it possible for us to get our education and what not. And I think that that's what drives me today, because I want to go back, and I want to help my community. I want to help the people in my family, particularly the men in my family.
I would say about 70 percent of them have been incarcerated, or are currently incarcerated. So my family, I always consider, is in a 9-1-1 situation, so that's what drives me. Because I know that I have to really do something about it.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. COLEMAN: What should African-Americans hear when they come to our concerts? What should they listen for? My answer is simple: listen for the soul. Listen for the soul. It's in our roots, it's in our backgrounds. We're bringing our background to the table to interpret all of the music that we play. So listen for it, because you will relate to it.
GORDON: Valerie Coleman of the classical chamber music ensemble Imani Winds. The group's third CD is self-titled.
(Soundbite of music)
GORDON: That's our program for today. Thanks for joining us.
To listen to the show, visit npr.org. NEWS AND NOTES was created by NPR News and the African-American Public Radio Consortium.
Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Imani Winds

https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/valerie-coleman-writing-music-for-people/

Valerie Coleman: Writing Music for People

by Frank J. Oteri 
November 23, 2020
New Music Box
 
https://soundcloud.com/new-music-usa/newmusicbox-interview-with-valerie-coleman/s-rz3xLJAmyVt


AUDIO ON SOUNDCLOUD:

New Music USA

Follow New Music USA and others on SoundCloud.

Valerie Coleman is committed to storytelling through her music, no matter the idiom. As she tells Frank J. Oteri in this conversation recorded on September 29, 2020, “I recognize that there are stories that are yet untold that if they were told, they would transform all those who would hear them. So it’s my job to create music that allows that transformative power to happen.”

To read a complete transcript of the talk, please visit

NewMusicBox: 

nmbx.newmusicusa.org/valerie-colema…ic-for-people/

New Music USA · NewMusicBox interview with Valerie Coleman

 

Frank J. Oteri in conversation with Valerie Coleman

 

September 29, 2020—11 A.M.

Via a Zoom Conference Call between Miami FL and New York NY

 

Produced and recorded by Brigid Pierce; audio editing by Anthony Nieves

Earlier this year, New Music USA launched Amplifying Voices, a program promoting marginalized voices in the orchestral field. Following a national call, eight American orchestras are leading consortium commissions for eight different composers. The seven composers selected thus far are Tania León (the first individual composer NewMusicBox interviewed, in 1999), Tyshawn Sorey (featured in NewMusicBox last year), Jessie Montgomery (featured four years ago), Brian Raphael Nabors, Juan Pablo Contreras, Shelley Washington, and Valerie Coleman (with whom we spoke a decade ago, regarding her maverick wind quintet, Imani Winds).

One of the most exciting aspects of Imani Winds is their commitment to new music from a diverse repertoire of composers, which makes sense given that they were founded by a composer. But what about Valerie Coleman, the composer?

In our first conversation with Valerie, we barely scratched the surface of her compositional activities. Since then, these have become her primary artistic focus. Valerie has recently been chosen to participate in the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works program, a perfect fit for her given her commitment to storytelling through her music, no matter the idiom.

So the launch of Amplifying Voices seemed like a perfect opportunity to reconnect and have a conversation about her own music—her aesthetics, her inspiration, and what she hopes she can communicate to listeners.

“That’s just how I identify and it’s because of what my ancestors have gone through,” she explains. “I feel it necessary to tell their story, but also really just embrace this idea of how to walk in the world and inform people around me. … I recognize that there are stories that are yet untold that if they were told, they would transform all those who would hear them. So it’s my job to create music that allows that transformative power to happen.”


launch gallery

https://thefluteview.com/2021/03/valerie-coleman-page-artist-interview/ 

Valerie Coleman Page Artist Interview

 
The Flute View

Valerie Coleman is a GRAMMY Nominated flutist and composer and Performance Today’s “2020 Classical Woman of the Year”. Her visionary mind is responsible for the creation of the iconic ensemble Imani Winds, its chamber music festival, and a wealth of repertoire that has become a cornerstone legacy within American chamber music. A native of Louisville, Valerie is an alumna of Concert Artists Guild, CMS Lincoln Center Two fellowship, is listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” by the Washington Post and is the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera.

Can you give us 5 career highlights?
To be onstage performing with Jazz artist Wayne Shorter was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, as I had the opportunity to witness a giant performing his iconic works; it forever changed the way I performed.  Another big career highlight for me was writing for the National Flute Association's High School Young Artist Competition, which resulted in the creation of the work, Fanmi Imèn. Writing this piece gave the opportunity to send a message of unity as inspired by the words of Maya Angelou in her poem, Human Family. Having historic firsts are highlights that I could not have imagined, but I was recently the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra. With my composer colleagues Joel Thompson and Jessie Montgomery, we three are the first African-American composers to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Orchestra.

How about 3 pivotal moments that were essential to creating the artist that you've become?

The first time I picked up the flute in 4th grade, the first time my music was recognized as a valid, viable work by Doriot Dwyer at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the creation of Imani Winds.

What do you like best about performing?
I love being the vehicle to which a story can be told and shared, and breathing through the music in a way that it becomes alive. Performing allows music to become our companion.

What do you like best about composing?

The thing I like best is the birth of a new work, from the moment within the process that a certainty of direction manifests and the work begins to form personality and write itself, to its launch into the world.

CD releases?

No releases this year, but I am so very honored that some of the leading flutists and clarinetist in our field today have programmed my music on their albums.


 Giantess, Jennie Oh Brown. Cedille Records, 

2019https://www.allmusic.com/album/giantess-mw0003320044


Clarinet Quintets for Our Time,David Shifrin with Harlem String Quartet. Delos Label, 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/clarinet-quintets-for-our-time-mw0003311298


Portraits,McGill/McHale Trio. Cedille Records, 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/portraits-works-for-flute-clarinet-piano-mw0003076121

What does your schedule look like for the next 6 months?

It is an honor to witness and participate in arts engines across the country as they create ingenious ways to survive, and my upcoming schedule includes virtual visits, competition adjudications and commissions. I am extremely excited to connect with our beloved flute community as a guest artist for Greater Portland Flute Society 4/10, Seattle Flute Society 4/11, Austin Flute Society 4/17, San Diego Flute Festival 5/22-23, and Amy Porter's iconic Anatomy of Sound Flute Workshop from June 5-8th. I will be an adjudicator for Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition 4/14-16 and Concert Artist Guild Annual Competition. Upcoming commissions include 2 new flute quartet pieces! One for Anatomy of Sound and the other for the Boston Celebrity Series. Other upcoming commissions include a new work for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Sphinx Virtuosi, and an opera for the Metropolitan Opera New Works Initiative.

What are your goals professionally?
My goals are to cultivate and advance the culture of hybridity within myself, academia, and the music industry. From there, I try to stay open to wherever that leads me, but it involves taking it as far as I can with pedagogy, touring, creating and recording new works. This path is not yet a fully paved and traveled road, but it is so inspirational to see flutists at the forefront of creating and performing, like Allison Loggins-Hull, Nicole Mitchell, and Nathalie Joachim. Their music IS the evolution we have all been waiting for.

What are your goals personally?

My personal goal is to be all that God means for me to be, which has yet to be revealed.

What inspires you the most in life?

Performing with artists who are able to transcend through music and their own beliefs on and off the stage, introducing students to new paths, and creating works that take on a life of their own.

What has been your greatest challenge?

My greatest challenge has been to champion a path of hybridity regardless of the societal messages within academic and Classical music circles. Hybrid artists face the stigma that the merging of disciplines resorts to not being good enough within either, despite evidence that proves otherwise in some of the greatest composers in Classical history, especially flutist-composers! I firmly believe that hybrid artists have a substantial role in the advancement of music. In learning to walk with humility and grace in the midst of all situations, and making the effort towards supporting each other, we not only survive but transcend.  To that, I am floored and humbled by the support of the flute community to which I owe so very much, and want to take this time to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so very proud to be counted amongst your ranks.

Who were your music mentors?  and what did you learn from them?


Ah! From Doriot Dwyer, I learned a fierce determination, from composer Tania Leon, I am learning all about the legacy of Black composers and the responsibility I have to pass along this legacy to younger generations.

Can you give us 5 quirky, secret, fun, (don't think too much about this) hobbies or passions?

Cooking, jigsaw puzzles, fantasy movies and novels, comic books, and dancing to golden oldie hits with my daughter.

What 3 things would you offer as advice for a young flutist?
1. Celebrate all the tiny moments of discovery as you develop your sound and learn new notes - savor the exploration! It is a priceless moment that you get to only go through once.

2. Each new song you learn is a gift -sing it out and let it shine brightly!..and if you hear a melody in your head, heed it and give it a voice on your flute.

3. Compete with yourself and not with others.

Valerie Coleman, Wish Sonatine


April 7, 2019

Erika Boysen, Flute Inara Zandmane, Piano Fred D'Aguiar, Poem Wayne Reich, Video Production Julian Ward & Isaac Ward, Audio Capture Nick Rich, Audio Mastering
 

News

Imani Wind Quintet playing at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium

Imani Winds are Jeff Scott on French horn, Toyin Spellman-Diaz on oboe, Valerie Coleman on flute, Monica Ellis on bassoon and Mariam Adam on clarinet.Photo by Matthew Murphy
PHOTO: Imani Winds are Jeff Scott on French horn, Toyin Spellman-Diaz on oboe, Valerie Coleman on flute, Monica Ellis on bassoon and Mariam Adam on clarinet. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)
by Kirk Silsbee

As a rule, we don’t expect revolutionary music trends from classical chamber ensembles. But if ears are open to the Imani Wind Quintet, even the seasoned chamber listener will be surprised by the novel delights in sound, repertory and musical associations. It’s safe to say that there’s nobody else like them.

The 16-year-old New York City-based ensemble plays Sunday at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium with guest pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. The African American quintet consists of flautist Valerie Coleman, oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz, clarinetist Mariam Adam, French-horn player Jeff Scott and bassoonist Monica Ellis.

“This instrumentation,” Scott says from his home in the Bronx, “has been around since the 1700s. Anton Reicha, a French composer who was a contemporary of Beethoven, is considered the father of the wind quintet form. It was popular all through the Romantic period. Composers like Giuseppi Cambini wrote serviceable music, but Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Strauss all wrote for the form.”

“Then there was nothing for almost a century,” Scott continues. “It fell by the wayside in the modern era. The New York Wind Quintet and the Philadelphia Wind Quintet commissioned a few contemporary composers like Hindemith and Samuel Barber to write, but those pieces just never caught on, for some reason. There was nothing new for us to draw upon, so we commissioned people to write for us. We would also arrange pieces within the group. Valerie and I contributed our own compositions.”

“My first arrangement,” Scott says, “was for a William Grant Still composition, ‘Inanga.’ Looking back, I don’t think I had the requisite feel. Valerie constantly tells me I should revisit the piece and rework it.”

Would Imani Winds consider going to some of the local jazz composers who know how to write for the wind idiom, like pianist Billy Childs and flautist James Newton?

Scott chuckles at the recognition, “We know them! Billy will probably give us a piece in the next three or four years. We have a lot of music to draw from, but there are only so many concerts on our schedule each year. It’s a source of frustration.”

Scott follows a certain standard when looking for compositions. “It’s got to feel good,” he stresses, “sound good, and it has to have meaning.”

Composer and pianist Chick Corea believes that every band has to have a mission — a reason for being, and a task that no other band can carry out. Asked about Imani’s mission, Scott says, “It’s twofold. Or threefold. Originally, we were an ensemble that champions the lesser-known composers and literature for our instrumentation. We also wanted to be role models for kids who looked like us and were interested in playing classical music.”

“Over the last seven or eight years,” he continues, “we’ve tried to make this group more meaningful than just our concert schedule and recordings. We want to leave a legacy of original music for the next generation of musicians. We’ve commissioned music by some of the finest composers from many genres: symphony, jazz, African and Latin. It’s important to us that we leave something behind.”

KIRK SILSBEE writes about jazz and culture for Marquee.

What: Imani Wind Quintet with Anne-Marie McDermott

Where: Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, 332 S. Michigan Ave.

THE MUSIC OF VALERIE COLEMAN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH VALERIE COLEMAN:


Celebrating Women Composers | Valerie Coleman

 


Imani Winds: A Musical Journey


Imani Winds performs Valerie Coleman's Red Clay




Imani Winds, "Bruits," Album Trailer


Valerie Coleman's "Red Clay and Mississippi Delta"



Composer Valerie Coleman on The Philadelphia Orchestra's




Interview with Valerie Coleman and performance of Umoja



A Conversation with Composer Valerie Coleman




Valerie Coleman Flute Unscripted Interview



Valerie Coleman: Red Clay and Mississippi Delta (ROCO)



Oberlin Conservatory Contemporary Music Ensemble: Valerie ...




Danza de la Mariposa - Valerie Coleman - Jiwoon Choi



Videos - VALERIE COLEMAN FLUTIST & COMPOSER








Valerie Coleman's UMOJA - Toronto Symphony Orchestra