Alistair Coleman
Composer-in-Residence
“…a fantastic young composer with a unique voice and imagination.”
– Midori
Alistair Coleman is a composer from Washington, DC, and the Young Concert Artists 2023–2025 Composer-in-Residence. His recent commissions include concertos for violinist Soovin Kim and cellist Zuill Bailey, and a trombone sonata for Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, which Alessi premiered on tour in China and Japan. His string quartet Moonshot, premiered through a collaboration with the Abeo Quartet, Glenstone Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution, was recently included on the Viano String Quartet’s Voyager album released on Platoon / Apple Music Classical. As YCA Composer-in-Residence, Coleman’s works have been premiered at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.
In the 2024–25 season, his works included a marimba concerto for Ji-Su Jung with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, a vocal work for baritone Joseph Parrish with pianist Damien Sneed at the Kennedy Center and Merkin Hall, a marimba work for Michael Yeung at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and an orchestral commission for the New York Youth Symphony, premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium as part of the NYYS First Music Prize. A movement of his violin concerto was also recently premiered by Lun Li with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.
Upcoming projects for 2025–26 include Complications in Sue, a scene for Opera Philadelphia with a libretto by Tony Award-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson; a solo cello work for Zlatomir Fung, commissioned by Les Yeux Art Foundation; a piano prelude for George Li, commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony; and a new work for The Clarion Choir & Orchestra. He will also compose a chamber work commissioned by the Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen for its 200th anniversary and a bass quintet for the Viano Quartet and Nina Bernat, commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest.
Coleman’s music has been performed by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Orchestra, the National Cathedral Choral Society, the Washington Master Chorale, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the National Philharmonic. He has collaborated with leading artists including Alexi Kenney, Nathan Cole, Tara Helen O’Connor, Teng Li, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Carlos Jiménez Fernández, Randall Scarlata, Alessio Bax, Gloria Chien, Avery Gagliano, Zhu Wang, Amy J. Yang, and Janice Carissa.
The winner of three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2020, 2021, 2024), Coleman has also received the Brian Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, Juilliard’s Gena Raps Chamber Music Prize, Curtis’s Joseph and Marie Schwartz Prize in Composition, and honors from the American Composers Forum, NPR’s From the Top, and the National YoungArts Foundation.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where he was a recipient of the George Gershwin Scholarship, Coleman’s trio was premiered at Alice Tully Hall after winning the 2020 Gena Raps Chamber Music Prize. He is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at Princeton University as a Roger Sessions Fellow.
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YCA represents composer Alistair Coleman for worldwide engagements. Please contact us for more information.