Valerie Coleman is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy® nominated composer and flutist. She is Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, Orchestra of St. Luke’s 2022 Gift of Music honoree, recipient of Herb Alpert Awards’ Ragdale Prize, Van Lier Fellowship Award, MAP Fund, and the creator of Imani Winds, an ensemble whose legacy is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History in Washington D.C. Through Imani Winds, she is a CMS Bowers Program Artist alumna and laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition. Listed as one of the Top 35 Women Composers by The Washington Post, she is one of the most performed living composers in the world. Her music is broadcasted on American Public Media, National Public Radio, Sirius-XM, WNYC, WQXR, Minnesota Public Radio, Radio France, Australian Broadcast Company and Radio New Zealand.
In addition to multiple commissions from Carnegie Hall and The Philadelphia Orchestra, other highlights include commissions from The Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Library of Congress, and American Composers Orchestra among many, and her works have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, The New World Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and many more. Highlighted moments include Ballet X performing Umoja choreography by Tiler Peck, BBC with Chineke! Orchestra, PBS with maestro Gerard Schwarz and the All-Star Orchestra, tours of Tracing Visions for string orchestra by Sphinx Virtuosi, and Giants of Light by the Carnegie Hall National Youth Orchestra, as well as chamber music premieres at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Clarion Concerts.
Coleman is the Director of the Woodwind Quintet Workshop at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and is a Yamaha Artist. Her works appear on the labels: Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Cedille Records and eOne, including the 2023 Grammy® award winning album by New York Youth Symphony, and Imani Winds’ 2005 Grammy® nominated album, The Classical Underground. Her music is published by Theodore Presser, and her own company, Coleman Page.
