Born in New York City in 1968, composer-singer-producer Charles Farmer Coleman (civil rights leader James Farmer was his Godfather) has lived an extraordinary musical life that began as a boy soprano in the Metropolitan Opera and most recently triumphed when the Cincinnati Symphony and The New Jersey Symphony premiered his two new major symphonic works, "Deep Woods " and "Red Oak Dawn."

Coleman fell in love with grand opera at the age of 8. In 1980 he joined the Metropolitan Opera’s children’s chorus singing all of the traditional children’s roles at the Met and the New York City Opera for the next four years including Feodor in “Boris Godunov” with the late basso Martti Talvela.

After a brief apprenticeship in musical composition at the Turtle Bay Music School he entered the Manhattan School of Music where he earned his Masters Degree studying with composers David Noon and Eric Lundborg. At Manhattan he met Kristjan Jarvi with whom, he and Gene Pritsker, founded The Absolute Ensemble. Coleman was named Composer-in-Residence of the Ensemble in 1997.

The Absolute Ensemble has come to symbolize a special blend of modern classical music; a synthesis of jazz, rock and traditional music, probably best expressed in Charles Coleman’s “Absolution,” written in 1999 and recorded on ENJA NOVA, a CD that was nominated for the “Best Small Ensemble Performance” Grammy in 2002.

As of this writing Charles Coleman has written 90 compositions starting with “Five Songs of Mother Goose” for Soprano and Piano which was published by Vanguard Music in 1993. “Young Words” for Chamber Ensemble was commissioned in 1995 by Litchfield Performing Arts of Connecticut and was choreographed and performed by the Pilobolus Dance Company. "Elegy” for String Orchestra (1995), “West Side Nocturne” for Solo Piano (1997), “Tracks” for Chamber Ensemble (1998) and “Pastorale” for Flute, Cello and Guitar (1999) followed, and his first Violin Concerto, “Monologue Blue” had its world premiere in Tallin, Estonia in August of 1998.

After his funky “Rut Strut” for Chamber Ensemble was performed in the New York Public Theatre’s Joe’s Pub in 2000, Coleman received a commission to write a major symphonic work celebrating the opening of The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 2001-2002 season with its new Music Director, Paavo Jarvi. “Streetscape” for Full Orchestra – a furious walk through the streets of Coleman’s native Manhattan, was first performed on September 14, 2001 in Cincinnati, three days after the destruction of the World Trade Center.  Actually, "Streetscape" had been composed in an apartment four blocks north of the WTC. 

In May of 2007, Coleman spent five weeks as the resident composer of the Cincinnati Symphony teaching, composing and lecturing as part of "Music Alive," a program that partners with the "Meet the Composer" Foundation.

His new symphony, "Deep Woods," world premiered on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at the CSO Music Hall.  The performance got stunning reviews (see News Page). 
During that same period Coleman's "Lime Factory" had its American premiere in Cincinnati (also see News Page for reviews).  After returning to New York following the Cincinnati experience, Charles opened his new chamber opera, "Redemption," Off-Broadway.

Earlier, Coleman's “Latarnia” for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra and “The Lime Factory” for Full Orchestra had their world premiere with the Symphony Orchestra of the Norrlands Opera in Sweden and the Ulster (Ireland) Symphony. (See News Page for review.)

The composer also has a series of orchestrations to his credit. Among them are “The Last Confession” by Arthur Kapp which was performed by the Detroit Symphony and Frank Zappa’s “Uncle Remus”, the Beatles “Come Together”, Jimi Hendrix’ “Manic Depression” and Compay Segundo’s “Chan Chan” ...all performed by the Absolute Ensemble.

(above: Streetscape opening night ticket. The Premiere was three days after 9/11/01. "Streetscape", written in Lower Manhattan, 4 blocks from Ground Zero, was powerfully appropriate.)

In his short career, Coleman’s work as a composer, orchestrator and producer has appeared on many CDs, notably “Absolute Mix” (CCn’C 00702) which won the German Record Critics Award in the year 2000. He has served as the producer of four CDs.

Finally, he works from time to time as a professional baritone.