Donna Coleman’s keyboard artistry is recognized worldwide, having earned for her prestigious honors including the Solo Recitalist Fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts (USA), Second Prize in the first Rockefeller Foundation International American Music Competition, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in Music for touring and lecturing in Australia, three Rockefeller Foundation grants for touring in the United States, and a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe University, to name just a few. She is renowned for her interpretations of the music of Charles Ives, with two acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label, one of which, the "Concord" Sonata (KTC 1079) received France’s Diapason d'Or and Editor’s Choice upon release.
In his review, Christian Tarting states, “This Second Pianoforte Sonata . . . finds here its most convincing recorded version, due to its assertion, the assurance in its manner of effectively carrying out each detail, its analytical finesse.” Bruno Serrou, writing for Compact (Paris) declares the recording “a very beautiful twentieth-century piano recording, an important piece of the ‘Ivesian’ puzzle.” James H North reviewed Coleman’s recording of the Piano Sonata No. 1 (KTC 1147) for USA’s Fanfare Magazine and calls it “grand and sweeping, strong and confident, filled with charm and overflowing with joy. It immediately becomes my preferred version.” She maintains an unswerving devotion to the music of the USA’s greatest composer by regularly programming his music in concerts framed by its philosophical, historical, and cultural context, and has created The Charles Ives Trio to further this mission. Coleman’s interest in the nineteenth century background for Ives’s music evolved into the Rags to Riches series of recordings (ABC Classics) for which Australia’s Soundscapes awarded its Editor's Choice to Volume I, A Syncopated Century. Havana to Harlem (Volume II) was released in July 2005. In 2010 OutBach® released Don’t Touch Me, the solo piano Danzas Cubanas by Ignacio Cervantes, to praise by Jean-Marc Warszawski writing for Musicologie.org: “Donna Coleman’s recording of Ignacio Cervantes’s Danzas Cubanas [OutBach® CN001] is a beautiful recording event. . . . Everything here is a rare musical success, thanks to the serene majesty of the interpretation, the tone color, the presentation, and the interest and curiosity that these compositions arouse.” The Lost Lady [OutBach® CN 002] is in post-production for release in late 2014 (all of Dr Coleman's recordings may be found at Amazon.com). The OutBach® project, an initiative dedicated to exploring relationships between the ancient musical traditions of Australia, Western European art music, and the African-inspired styles in the Americas, produced the world-first piano and didgeridoo duo performances, with William Barton, didgeridoo artist, premiered in a May 2003 nationwide and Internet-streamed direct broadcast for ABC Classic FM. OutBach® presented the world premiere of the Concerto in D minor for Piano, Didgeridoo, and Guitars, originally composed by J.S. Bach, for the Shell-Darwin International Guitar Festival in July 2005, in July 2007 with Tom E Lewis (The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith) and his associates in the Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation for their annual Walking With Spirits festival in Beswick NT, and June 2014 saw the realization of yet another interpretation with the Melbourne Guitar Quartet and Ron Murray, didgeridoo, for the Melbourne Recital Centre.Born in Philadelphia, Dr Coleman has been on the faculty of three USA universities and now teaches in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia, and she has collaborated with Distinguished Professor Franco Agostini (Conservatorio “GB Martini,” University of Bologna) to produce summer masterclasses for the L’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Ferruccio Busoni” in Bologna (San Lázzaro) and Cento, Italy.
Find out more about Donna Coleman's experience
Donna Coleman's highlights
FEATURED Live Performance of Creative Work
The Emerson Trio, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Read moreDonna Coleman's selected work
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 98 most recent scholarly works by Donna Coleman.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Bunting Fellowship Radcliffe College
Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship to Australia (from the USA)
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Credentials
Positions
Honorary
Melbourne Conservatorium Of Music
Education
Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance & Literature
University of Rochester
Master of Music
University of Michigan
Bachelor of Fine Arts summa cum laude
Indiana University of Pennsylvania