Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman is a contemporary American flutist, composer, and entrepreneur. The founder of the wind quintet Imani Winds, Coleman is a prominent contributor to the wind chamber music repertoire.

Coleman began her music education in fourth grade, taking up flute and composing as a hobby. By fourteen, she had won competitions for her work at the local and state level. She graduated from Boston University with two Bachelor of Arts degrees, in composition and flute performance, and from Mannes College of Music with a Master of Music degree in flute performance.

While in school in 1996, she organized and founded Imani Winds as its first flutist. The group has since released several albums, been named resident-artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and won various awards.

Coleman’s musical style incorporates jazz and Afro-Cuban musical genres, both of which can be heard in her seminal wind quintet piece Umoja. Coleman currently holds faculty positions at Juilliard, the Tanglewood Institute, the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes School of Music, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.