Melissa Coleman

Melissa Coleman (* 1968 in Melbourne ) is an Australian cellist who works in classical, jazz and improvisational music .

Live and act

Coleman received classical piano lessons from the age of seven before switching to the cello. She studied cello at the Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne with Henry Wenig from 1981 until graduating with honors in 1990. Before that, she was the 1987 winner of the Herbert N. Davis Chamber Music Award and in 1998 received the Hepzibah Menuhin Award for String Soloists from the Musical Society of Victoria . Then she moved to London and attended private master classes with Mischa Maisky , Mark Dobrinsky and William Pleeth . In 1991 she lived in Klagenfurt to study with Miloš Mlejnik. In 1992 she received first prize at the International Cello Competition in Liezen . Since then she has lived in Vienna.

Coleman worked as an ensemble member and soloist in various chamber music formations and ensembles, such as the Klangforum Wien , with which she interpreted works by Beat Furrer and Georg Friedrich Haas . Between 1993 and 2009 she was a member of Ensemble XX. Century , with which several albums were created. Since 1996 she has been a member of the Koehne Quartet , which has also presented productions with Paul Gulda , Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb . She was also a member of the Striped Roses jazz band . Since 2001 she has formed an improvisation trio with Otto Lechner and Karl Ritter . She has been touring with the Janus Ensemble several times as a soloist . She also toured with Dhafer Youssef and made theater music a. a. at the Burgtheater . With Tini Kainrath , Sigi Finkel and Monika Lang she formed the Freihaus 4 group .

Coleman can also be heard on albums by Willi Langer , Ostbahn Kurt , Peter Herbert , Birds of Vienna , Joëlle Léandre , Max Nagl , Wolfgang Puschnig , Elfi Aichinger , Karl Ratzer , the Mozart band and Ramona Kasheer.

Web links

• Web presence
• Melissa Coleman at Discogs (English)