Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) Welcomes Flutist and Composer Valerie Coleman for Residency in 2021-22

NEW YORK–– Flutist and composer Valerie Coleman will join Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) for a residency in 2021-22 through American Composers Forum (ACF) and its BandQuest commission and residency program. During the 2021-22 school year, Coleman will work with the young musicians of MAP in a residency that will include workshops, conversations, performances, chamber coachings, and full ensemble collaboration. A culminating piece, co-created by Coleman with the MAP students, will receive its world premiere in New York City in the spring.

“I am honored and thrilled to be working alongside Juilliard and American Composers Forum in this exciting venture,” Coleman said. “The opportunities and resources provided to young musicians by these organizations have been invaluable to ensure that the vibrancy and enthusiasm for music playing within students remain strong throughout their young careers.” Coleman, who has served on the MAP faculty, said she looks forward to “reconnecting with the program and spending time with the students during this residency, and to create a work that celebrates and bolsters their artistic potential.”

While Coleman has had a long relationship with MAP, this new collaboration with ACF was the result of conversations about how a composer could be integrated into the preparatory program to foster creativity and deepen students’ learning.

“The Music Advancement Program is excited to participate in American Composers Forum’s BandQuest residency with the amazing Valerie Coleman,” said Weston Sprott, dean of Juilliard’s Preparatory Division. “Valerie’s return to Juilliard—to create a work for our wind ensemble, teach our students in composition and chamber music, and inspire our community in numerous other ways—promises to be a highlight of the school year.”

ACF president and CEO Vanessa Rose said that this “expansion of BandQuest enables ACF to work with several elements of a program like MAP that is dedicated to transformative work: bringing together students studying different areas of music in the spirit of creation, providing an opportunity to pilot a composer-in-residence, and inspiring the student’s ecosystem around them to work and play with a living composer. We are excited to follow the tremendous impact making music with Valerie will have on the students, and their community.”

For more than 20 years, ACF’s BandQuest program has enabled established music creators to collaborate with school band programs on creating a new musical work. The resulting pieces of music are published by ACF and distributed exclusively by Hal Leonard Corporation.

About Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy -nominated flutist and composer. She is an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Fellowship program, laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition, American Public Radio’s 2020 classical woman of the year, and the creator of the ensemble Imani Winds. Listed as one of the top 35 women composers in the Washington Post, Coleman was the first African-American woman to be commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and was a composer in residence for Orchestra of St. Luke’s five-borough tour. In addition to having had performances of her music by the likes of the St. Louis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, New World Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and Utah Symphony, she has received the Herb Alpert Awards Ragdale Prize, Van Lier Fellowship, MAP Fund, and ASCAP Honors Award, among others. Her work UMOJA was listed by Chamber Music America as one of the top 101 great American ensemble works. In addition to multiple commissions from Carnegie Hall, she’s had commissions from 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 labels Naxos, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, eOne and Cedille Records. Her compositions and performances are regularly on the air domestically at Sirius XM, NPR, WNYC, WQXR, and Minnesota Public Radio and abroad including through RadioFrance, Australian Broadcast Company, and Radio NZ. Coleman is a highly sought-after recitalist and multidisciplinary clinician with a reputation of transformative skill. She’s had master classes and performances at institutions including Juilliard, Eastman School of Music, Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin College, University of Chicago, and Interlochen Arts Academy. Valerie Coleman is a Yamaha Flute Artist. vcolemanmusic.com

About Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP)

Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) is a Saturday program for intermediate and advanced music students from New York City’s five boroughs and the tristate area who demonstrate a commitment to artistic excellence. The program actively seeks students from diverse backgrounds underrepresented in the classical music field and is committed to enrolling the most talented and deserving students regardless of their financial background. Through a rigorous curriculum, performance opportunities, and guidance from an accomplished faculty, MAP students gain the necessary skills to pursue advanced music studies while developing their talents as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Approximately 70 students are enrolled in MAP, which is led by Artistic Director Anthony McGill.

MAP is generously supported through an endowed gift in memory of Carl K. Heyman.

About the American Composers Forum (ACF)

American Composers Forum (ACF) supports and advocates for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We connect artists with collaborators, organizations, audiences, and resources. Through storytelling, publications, recordings, hosted gatherings, and industry leadership, we activate equitable opportunities for artists. We provide direct funding and mentorship to a broad and diverse field of music creators, highlighting those who have been historically excluded from participation.

Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on racial equity and includes within that scope, but not limited to, diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of being “American.” Visit composersforum.org and composersforum.org/bandquest/ for more information.
 

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov. Additional support is provided by the I.A. O'Shaughnessy Foundation.