Valerie Coleman in Residence

Internationally acclaimed, Grammy^®-nominated composer and flutist Valerie Coleman will be the Eastman School of Music’s 2024 Glenn E. Watkins Lecture Series guest speaker. Coleman will be on campus from November 6-8, 2024, with public events taking place in Hatch Recital Hall during the first two days of her three-day residency.

Highlighted as one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by The Washington Post, she was named the 2020 “Classical Woman of the Year” by “Performance Today,” an honor bestowed to an individual who has made a significant contribution to classical music as a performer, composer or educator. Other prominent accolades include the Van Lier Fellowship Award, Herb Alpert Awards’ Ragdale Prize and MAPFund.

According to the Philadelphia Enquirer, “Coleman’s music has a special kind of joy. A sense of liberation and goodness that has been central to a certain American sound in classical music for decades.” She is the founder of the acclaimed ensemble Imani Winds and holds positions at The Juilliard School, Tanglewood Institute and Manhattan School of Music.

“The Musicology Department is thrilled to welcome Valerie Coleman to Eastman to deliver the 2024 Glenn E. Watkins lecture,” shares Michael Alan Anderson, Chair of the Musicology Department. “Our community will be eager to witness her fascinating story, penetrating artistic vision and signal contributions to composition and performance. We are further excited to have turned this traditional lecture into a multiday residency that will benefit students and faculty across the school through an array of activities.”

While visiting Eastman, Coleman will spend time with undergraduate and graduate students across departments. From group coaching sessions and class appearances to a ‘meet and greet’ at the George Walker Center for Equity and Inclusion in Music, Eastman’s students will have ample access to Coleman’s expertise.

On Wednesday, November 6, Coleman will present her Glenn Watkins Lecture, titled “Of Crosscurrents and Catalysts,” at 4:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall, immediately followed by a lecture Q&A. For those who are unable to attend in person, this lecture will be livestreamed. The next day, on Thursday, November 7, she will lead a Chamber Music Masterclass at 12:30 p.m. in Hatch. Both of these events are free and open to the public. She will also privately address a symposium hosted by the Composition Department.

Coleman is “so delighted to visit the Eastman School of Music as a guest for the 2024 Glenn E. Watkins series. Looking forward to a wonderful time of connecting with students and faculty across the many disciplines there.”

The Glenn E. Watkins Lecture Series was established by the distinguished musicologist and Eastman alumnus Glenn Watkins ’53E to bring exceptional figures in the field of music and related humanistic disciplines to speak at the school. Watkins, who died in 2021, joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1963, where he was Earl V. Moore Professor of Music from 1984 until his retirement in 1996.

Known for his Italian Renaissance scholarship and his work on music of the 20th century, Watkins’s publications encompassed multiple genres. His “Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century” (1988) was widely adopted as a textbook, while his “Gesualdo: The Man and His Music” (1973) remains one of the defining studies of Carlo Gesualdo.

The Glenn Watkins Lecture Series has brought such guests to Eastman as Vijay Iyer, Meredith Monk, Jo Ann Falletta, Leon Botstein, Francesca Zambello and Jeremy Denk.