Valerie Coleman (b. 1970) grew up in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky, where she excelled as a flute player and dabbled in composition from an early age. As she went on to music study at Boston University and the Mannes School of Music, she began noticing that she was one of very few (or often the only) Black players or women in her ensembles. This lack of representation inspired her to found the Imani Winds, a woodwind quintet dedicated to diversifying the repertoire and by performing and commissioning works from composers of underrepresented backgrounds. They have since won wide acclaim, as has Coleman herself. As a flutist, her list of collaborators is as impressive as can be. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by a similarly long, distinguished, and diverse array of ensembles, and she has won many awards to match. Perhaps most notably, she was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year. She is also a sought-after teacher, most recently appointed to the composition faculty at The Juilliard School. To even scratch the surface of her resume, start at her website, then keep going at Wikipedia, her publishing company, the Manhattan School of Music, Chicago Pathways’ “A Composer You Should Know” series, the Charlotte Symphony, and The Juilliard School.
Roma came about in 2010 on a commission from CBDNA. Its Committee on Gender and Ethnic Issues assembled a consortium of college and university band programs, with the premiere going to the high school band in Roma, Texas. Coleman recounts the process of putting the piece together in her score:
The commission featured two trips to Roma, a small town on the Mexico-US border, where a good number of students cross the divide daily in order to attend the school. The residency was a true musical exchange of minds. In the first residency, I attended a rehearsal to observe the full breadth of the band’s ability. The enthusiasm of the students was infectious and their humble demeanor was endearing. The second visit focused on the commissioned work itself: the cultural aspects, the ostinato rhythms, and style. Between visits, internet correspondence was kept, as the band would send sound recordings of the rehearsals in progress. It was an exciting process to work with such talented young minds in a band program that sets such a high standard with discipline, musicality, and integrity.
She continues with an informational program note (to which I have added some links):
A nation without a country is the best way to describe the nomadic tribes known as gypsies, or properly call, the Romani. Their traditions, their language (Roma), legends, and music stretch all over the globe, from the Middle East, the Mediterranean region, and the Iberian peninsula, across the ocean to the Americas. ROMA is a tribute to that culture, in five descriptive themes, as told through the eyes and hearts of Romani women everywhere: “Romani Woman,” “Mystic,” “Youth,” “Trickster,” and “History.” The melodies and rhythms are a fusion of styles and cultures: Malagueña of Spain, Argentine Tango, Arabic music, Turkish folk songs, 3/2 Latin claves, and Jazz.
The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble performs Roma:
One content note: Coleman emphasizes that the preferred term for the people that this music comes from is Romani, as opposed to the more widely-known G-word that she begins with. In fact, while some Romani people have owned this word, others regard it as a slur, so I will endeavor not to use it any further in this article, including in the bonus material below.
For those wishing to know more about Coleman’s sources for Romani music, start here, with this lecture by a Romani-American professor:
She also references some of the roots of Romani music, including Spanish Malagueña:
Argentine Tango:
Arabic music:
Turkish folk songs:
3/2 Latin clave:
and Jazz:
I would be remiss if I did not also include some Balkan brass band music, which has much to do with Romani music and culture:
Each of these genre mentions gets only one video example, and these are, of necessity, broad generalizations of each genre, but I hope you get the idea. All this is to say that Romani music draws from a vast and diverse collection of word musical traditions, forming its own unique synthesis. Coleman captures this in Roma. See more about the piece at her website, the Wind Repertory Project, Northwestern University, and Theodore Front Music.