Valerie Coleman & Friends

Friday, November 7, 2025
Doors 7:00 | Show 7:30
UVM Recital Hall
$43.50 Adult | $7.50 Student (plus 3% cc fee when applicable)
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Valerie Coleman may be familiar to some of our audience as a founding member and flutist of the Imani Winds. She is also a celebrated and award-winning composer, named one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by the Washington Post. Performance Today nominated her “2020 Classical Woman of the Year”, an honor bestowed to an individual who has made a significant contribution to classical music as a performer, composer, or educator. Her works have garnered awards such as the MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program, Herb Alpert Ragdale Residency Award, and nominations from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and United States Artists. Umoja, Anthem for Unity was chosen by Chamber Music America as one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works” and is now a staple of woodwind literature. 

She has assembled an incredible group of instrumentalists – fellow Imani Winds alumni Mariam Adam, clarinet and Monica Ellis, bassoon; Tai Murray on violin; cellist Titilayo Ayangade; and Artina McCain, piano  for a limited tour which we are delighted to be a part of. Reverie takes the listener back to the early twentieth century through the perspectives of Black artists who were at the center of both “Le Jazz Hot” and the Harlem Renaissance. This program melds these two worlds with works like Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, Debussy’s Clair de Lune, and Coleman’s own Portraits of Langston, Cotton Club Juba, and more.

Program

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PieceComposer

Reverie - Dreams of Harlem and Paris 

Titilayo Ayangade, cello

Artina McCain, piano

Claude Debussy  

(1862-1918)

Matisseries - Featuring the art of Henri Matisse

Odalisques: Harmony in Red

Odalisques: Purple Anemones

Cut Out: Celestial Jerusalem

Cut out: Tree of Life

Cut out: Creole Dancer

Valerie Coleman, flute

Mariam Adam, clarinet

Monica Ellis, bassoon

Valerie Coleman 

(b. 1970 )

Sonata for Violin and Cello

Tai Murry, violin

Titilayo Ayangade, cello

Maurice Ravel   

(1875-1937)

intermission

PieceComposer

Summerland 

Tai Murray, violin

Artina McCain, piano

William Grant-Still  

(1895-1978)

Portraits of Langston - Dedicated to the poems and memories of Langston Hughes

To Helen Keller

Danse Africaine

Le Grand Duc Mambo

Silver Rain

Parisian Cabaret

Harlem Summer Night

Valerie Coleman, flute

Mariam Adam, clarinet

Artina McCain, piano

Monica Ellis, narrator

Valerie Coleman 

Cotton Club Juba - from Renaissance Concerto

Valerie Coleman, flute

Mariam Adam, clarinet

Monica Ellis, bassoon

Tai Murray, violin

Titilayo Ayangade, cello

Artina McCain, piano

Valerie Coleman