Valerie Coleman facts for kids

'Valerie Coleman is a famous American composer and flutist. She also created the wind quintet called Imani Winds. Valerie Coleman is a very important artist. She was named Performance Todays 2020 Classical Woman of the Year. The Washington Post also listed her as one of the "Top 35 Women Composers."

In 2019, the Philadelphia Orchestra performed her orchestral piece, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, for the first time. This was a special moment because Umoja was the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra had ever performed.

Coleman is well-known for her many contributions to chamber music for wind instruments. With Imani Winds, she released several albums. One of these albums was even nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2005.

Valerie Coleman studied at Mannes College of Music. Her teachers included famous musicians like Julius Baker. Her music often blends different styles, such as jazz and classical music. She also frequently includes themes about society or politics in her compositions. Her piece Umoja was named one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" by Chamber Music America in 2002.

Early Life and Music Education

Valerie Coleman was born on September 3, 1970. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, in the same neighborhood as the famous boxer Muhammad Ali. Her father passed away when she was nine years old. Her mother raised Valerie and her sisters as a single working mom.

From a young age, Valerie loved music and wanted to play the flute. She started learning music formally in fourth grade, when she was eleven. Even as a young musician, Coleman was interested in writing her own music. She began writing symphonies as a hobby, using a small portable organ at home. By age fourteen, she had written three full symphonies. She also won many local and state music competitions. She played the flute in a youth orchestra too. She graduated from Louisville Male High School.

Valerie and all her sisters went to college. She earned two degrees from Boston University: one in music theory and composition, and another in flute performance. Later, she earned a master's degree in flute performance from Mannes College of Music. Coleman learned flute from teachers like Julius Baker and Alan Weiss. She studied composition with Martin Amlin and Randall Woolf.

Creating Imani Winds

In 1996, while still a student, Coleman started planning a chamber music group. She named it Imani Winds. Imani is a Swahili word that means "faith." She looked for African American woodwind players who shared a similar cultural background and approach to classical music. She explained why she started the group in an NPR interview:

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 members: Valerie Coleman on flute, Torin Spellman-Diaz on oboe, Monica Ellis on bassoon, Mariam Adam on clarinet, and Jeff Scott on french horn. From the very beginning, the group wanted to support composers who were not often heard, especially those from non-European backgrounds in modern music. Their music often includes influences from different cultures, like music from Africa, Latin America, and North America.

In 2001, Imani Winds won the Concert Artists Guild competition. Over the next few years, they released five albums around the world on the E1 Music label. Many of the songs on these albums were composed by Valerie Coleman herself. The New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper praised their playing, saying they had a rich, classical sound but also played with the daring and spontaneous style of a jazz group.

Imani Winds became resident artists at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They have performed in major concert halls across the United States. The group has won awards from Artists International and the 2005 ASCAP/WQXR-FM Award for Adventurous Programming. They were also honored at the 2007 ASCAP Concert Music Awards.

NPR Music named their album Terra Incognita one of the "5 Best American Contemporary Classical Albums Of 2010." They said that Imani Winds is known for adding new and important music to the wind quintet collection. According to the Cleveland Classical newspaper, Imani Winds has made a special place for themselves in classical chamber music. They do this through creative programs, new music projects, and teaching, all while showing excellent musical skill.

Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival

In 2009, Coleman created the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. This festival is both a learning program and a concert series. It takes place at the Lincoln Center Campus in New York City. The festival brings together artists from the United States and other countries.

In 2012, the festival added a program for new composers called the Emerging Composers Program. This program included special classes with composers like Mohammed Fairouz and Daniel Bernard Roumain. Famous guest artists like Stefon Harris and Paula Robison also participated.

Valerie Coleman's Solo Career

Valerie Coleman performed as a flutist and composer for the first time at Carnegie Hall in 2004. Before that, she was the understudy for flutist Eugenia Zukerman at Lincoln Center. Coleman was also a featured soloist at the Mannes College of Music's Mannes 2000 Bach Festival. She has performed at many famous venues, including Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center.

Her compositions and performances are often played on classical radio stations in the United States. She has been featured on New York's classical radio station WQXR. She also appeared on NPR shows like Performance Today and All Things Considered. In April 2008, she was featured in Flutist Quarterly magazine.

She has been asked to create music by many groups. These include the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, The National Flute Association, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Valerie Coleman has also been a teacher for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has taught at the Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program. She has given flute masterclasses at many universities, including SUNY Purchase and Ohio State. She has also been a composer and flutist in residence with Young Audiences NYC. Coleman is part of the advisory panel for the National Flute Association.

Her Compositions

Coleman is the main composer for Imani Winds. However, the group also performs music by other members and composers. Coleman's style blends modern orchestral music with genres like jazz and Afro-Cuban music. She has added many new works to the music written for the flute. She has also written for wind quintet, full orchestra, woodwinds, brass, and strings. Many of her works have been published by International Opus.

As a flute player, Valerie Coleman has written many pieces that are now important parts of the flute repertoire. One of these pieces is Danza de la Mariposa. This work is a tone poem written for solo flute. It was inspired by the different types of butterflies found across South America. Coleman also composed Amazonia, a piece for flute and piano. This piece starts by showing the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. But as the music continues, it shows darker themes. These themes represent the harmful effects humans have on the Amazon rainforest.

She often combines music with words from historical figures and poets. Sometimes, she uses parts of speeches from people like Robert F. Kennedy and Cesar Chavez.

Her piece Painted Lady was her first commissioned work for orchestra and soprano singer. The Hartford Courant newspaper said the songs were "luminous works." They praised her beautiful melodies and interesting rhythms. They called her a "major talent." The songs used words by the African American poet Margaret Danner.

Her well-known wind quintet piece Umoja (named after the Swahili word for "unity") was listed as one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" by Chamber Music America in 2002. Umoja was first written for a women's choir to celebrate the first day of Kwanzaa. Since then, Coleman has arranged Umoja for many different instruments. These include arrangements for flute quartet, wind trio, brass quintet, and string quartet. In 2019, Umoja was arranged for orchestra and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. This was a historic moment, as it was the first time the Philadelphia Orchestra performed a work by a living African American female composer.

Teaching and Academia

In 2018, Coleman became an Assistant Professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami (FL). She teaches performance, chamber music, and entrepreneurship. She also directs the Chamber Music program there.

In 2021, Coleman was appointed a Clara Mannes Fellow at the Mannes School of Music, part of The New School in New York City. She teaches flute performance and music composition.

In 2024, Coleman joined the composition department faculty at the Juilliard School in New York City. She will start teaching there in the 2024–25 school year.

Awards and Recognition

Valerie Coleman has received many awards for her musical talents:

• Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award
• Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Music Festival
• Meet The Composer's Edward and Sally Van Lier Memorial Fund Award, 2003
• Multi-Arts Production Fund grant, which supports new and creative works in performing arts.
• Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the Year

Grammy Nomination

Valerie Coleman's work has also been recognized by the Grammy Awards.

Selected Compositions

Here are some of Valerie Coleman's notable compositions:

For Wind Quintet

• 2001: UMOJA
• 2005: Afro-Cuban Concerto
• 2006: Suite: Portraits of Josephine - 4 Movements
• 2009: Red Clay and Mississippi Delta - Scherzo

Arrangements for Wind Quintet

• "Afro Blue" (by Mongo Santamaria)
• "NKOSI SI KE LEL 'I AFRIKA" (South African national anthem)
• Spirituals, Vol.1 ("Every Time I Feel the Spirit", "Steal Away", "Little David Play on Your Harp")
• "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing"

For Chamber Music

• 2003: UMOJA for wind sextet
• 2005: Sonatine for Clarinet and Piano
• 2007: Suite: Portraits of Langston for flute, clarinet & piano
• 2012: Rubispheres for flute, clarinet and bassoon

For Orchestra

• 2005: The Painted Lady
• 2019: UMOJA
• 2020: Seven O'Clock Shout

For Concert Band

• 2008: UMOJA
• 2009: ROMA

For Solo Flute

• 2011: Danza de la Mariposa

Discography

Imani Winds Albums

• 2002: Umoja
• 2005: The Classical Underground (E1 Music)
• 2007: Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot (E1)
• 2010: Terra Incognita (E1)
• 2013: Mohammed Fairouz: Native Informant (Naxos Records)
• 2013: Without a Net (Blue Note Records)

Personal Life

Valerie Coleman lives with her husband, Jonathan Page, and their daughter, Lisa.