Alistair Coleman is a composer from Washington, DC. 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. As the 2023–25 Composer-in-Residence of Young Concert Artists, Alistair’s works have been premiered at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

In 2025–26, Alistair will compose a scene for Complications in Sue, commissioned by 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; and a new work for choir and period orchestra for The Clarion Choir & Orchestra. His music will also be featured on the Viano Quartet’s upcoming album Voyager, to be released on Platoon / Apple Music Classical in summer 2025.

The 2024–25 season featured a marimba concerto for Ji-Su Jung, and a commission from the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Other projects included a European tour of a new chamber work for Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen’s 200th anniversary, and a bass quintet for the Viano Quartet and Nina Bernat, commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest.

Recent highlights include performances by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and National Philharmonic at Strathmore, a work for baritone Joseph Parrish and pianist Damien Sneed; collaborations with pianists Amy J. Yang, Zhu Wang, Avery Gagliano, and Janice Carissa in partnership with Steinway; and residencies at Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, and Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival.

Alistair has collaborated with violinists Alexi Kenney and Nathan Cole, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Teng Li, trombonist Carlos Jiménez Fernández, and pianists Alessio Bax and Gloria Chien. His music has been performed by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Orchestra, National Cathedral Choral Society, and Washington Master Chorale.

He has received three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2020, 2021, 2024), the Brian Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, the Juilliard Gena Raps Chamber Music Prize, Curtis’s Schwartz Prize in Composition, and honors from the American Composers Forum, NPR’s From the Top, and the National YoungArts Foundation.

In 2020, he founded a composition mentorship program with the Opportunity Music Project, in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s PlayUSA. He also serves on the Curtis Institute’s Musical Studies Faculty and teaches at Hidden Valley’s Emerging Composers Intensive.

A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, Alistair begins PhD studies at Princeton University as a Roger Sessions Fellow in fall 2025. His mentors include Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jennifer Higdon, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, Steven Mackey, and David Serkin Ludwig.