Valerie Coleman is regarded by many as an iconic artist who continues to pave her own unique path, as a Grammy-nominated flutist, composer and entrepreneur.

Perhaps most notably, she is the creator, founder, and former flutist of the acclaimed Imani Winds, an ensemble whose performances and original works have redefined wind chamber music with performances that span the globe.

Coleman’s multi-faceted career has led her to be featured with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI), New Haven Symphony, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Music at Angelfire, Banff, Spoleto USA, Bravo! Vail, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center, to name a few.

Valerie studied flute with Julius Baker, Judith Mendenhall, Doriot Dwyer, Leone Buyse and Alan Weiss; composition with Martin Amlin and Randy Wolfe. She is published by Theodore Presser and has her own company, VColeman Music.  Valerie currently is an Assistant Professor and Director of Chamber Music at the Frost School of Music and the University of Miami.

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 Academy of Arts and Letters, and United States Artists. 

-Adapted by Megan Maloney from: https://www.vcolemanmusic.com/about1.html