Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in The Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.

Coleman is known for her many contributions to wind chamber music and with Imani Winds, she released a number of studio albums with the group, one of which was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2005. She received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2025, for Revelry.

A graduate of Mannes College of Music and taught by musicians such as Julius Baker, her compositions frequently incorporate diverse styles such as jazz with classical music and often incorporate political or social themes. Her piece Umoja in 2002 was listed as one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" by Chamber Music America.

Early life and education Valerie Coleman was born 3 September 1970 and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, in the same West End inner city neighborhood that boxer Muhammad Ali grew up in. and the panel of guest artists included Stefon Harris, Paula Robison, Carol Wincenc, and Stanley Drucker. Coleman also composed Amazonia, 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.

She often interposes music with the words of historical figures and poets, in some cases using manipulated speeches of people of diverse as Robert F. Kennedy, A. Philip Randolph and Cesar Chavez. 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. Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot in 2007 traced the life Josephine Baker,

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.

In 2024, Coleman was appointed to the composition department faculty effective in the 2024–25 academic year at the Juilliard School in New York City.

Awards Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award

Grammys Year Category Song/albumLabel Result 2005 Best Classical Crossover Album The Classical UndergroundKoch Int'l Classics 2025Best Contemporary Classical Composition

List of compositions Source: