Living History In the Making: Grammy Award Flutist Valerie Coleman Page Conducts Master Class at B-CU

On Friday, February 14, 2020 Grammy Award flutist and composer Valerie Coleman presented a workshop entitled “my life's journey as a composer and performing artist.” Coleman conducted a flute master class on Saturday with our music majors and on Sunday she performed a recital with Dr. Rose Grace, Associate Professor in the Department of Music. Musical selections were original compositions for flute and piano, inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem, "Human Family,” and other themes, such as the passage and transport of African slaves. Coleman’s three-day residency was in celebration of Black history as part of B-CU’s Music Department’s Community Performance series. For the first time, the recital was streamed live and received great online feedback, watch the replay here.

Valerie Coleman-Page is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy® nominated flutist and composer. She is an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center CMS Two Fellowship program, laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition, and is the creator of the ensemble Imani Winds. Listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post, Valerie has recently become the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and 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 multiple commissions from Carnegie Hall, others include: 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 record labels Naxos, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, eOne and Cedille Records. Both her compositions and performances are regularly “on the air" at Sirius XM, NPR, WNYC, WQXR and Minnesota Public Radio and abroad including RadioFrance, Australian Broadcast Company, and Radio NZ. Coleman is a highly sought-after recitalist and clinician with a reputation of transformative skill. Masterclasses and performances at top institutions include: Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin College, University of Chicago, and Interlochen Arts Academy. Valerie Coleman-Page is an Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, FL.

Coleman has commissioned her work to be performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2020; the first African American woman composer premiered by a world renowned orchestra in the 21st century.