The Kotas Project

Valerie Coleman was born in 1970 in Louisville, Kentucky. Coleman graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in both Composition and FLute Performance. Coleman earned a Masters in Flute Performance from Mannes College of Music. Her teachers include Julius Baker, Alan Weiss, Judith Mendenhall, Doriot Dwyer, Mark Sparks, Martin Amlin and Randall Woolf.

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In 1996, Coleman created Imani winds while still a student. Her goal was to create a chamber ensemble for Black woodwind players in order to remedy a lack of role models she became aware of in college. The group plays pieces by underrepresented composers as well as pieces that explore African, Latin American, and North American culture. In 2009 Coleman expanded Imani Winds and created the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. Three years later composers were admitted to the festival under the Emerging Composers Program.

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In 2004 Coleman made her debut at Carnegie Hall. She was also a soloist in the Mannes 2000 Bach Festival. Coleman has also performed at  Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Coleman’s compositions have been played by many professional groups such as  San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, The National Flute Association, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, College Band Director's National Association, West Michigan Flute Association, and The Flute and Clarinet Duos Consortium.

In addition to composition and performance, Coleman is also a teacher at the  Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program, and Interschool Orchestras of New York.