Fred Coleman

Founding Conductor & Artistic Director

Seattle native Fred Coleman has been the Founding Director of the Seattle Choral Company since 1982, and he currently celebrates his 24th year as their Artistic Director.  He began pursuing vocal studies at the University of Washington and at the Cornish Institute and started working with choral groups in 1973.  He graduated from the U. of W. with college honors and attended choral master classes with Daniel Moe (Oberlin Conservatory), Dale Warland (Dale Warland Singers) and Robert Shaw.
 
He was invited to sing under Maestro Shaw’s baton at Carnegie Hall for the Carnegie Centennial Year.  In the summer of 1998, he participated in Mr. Shaw’s last Summer Festival Institute before Shaw’s death in January, 1999.
 
Coleman has shaped the Seattle Choral Company into the premiere symphonic chorus of greater Seattle. His finely tuned yet spirited performances have captured the praise of audiences and critics alike. Maestro Coleman has led the SCC on a journey through many of the most glorious choral works ever written—including the Berlioz “Te Deum,” Prokofieff’s “Alexander Nevsky,” Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” Beethoven’s “Choral Symphony,” Haydn’s “Creation,” and Bach’s “St. John Passion.” He has also championed America’s finest contemporary choral composers, bringing to local audiences works by Roxanna Panufnik, Philip Glass, William Hawley, Morten Lauridsen, and Seattle composers Donald Skirvin and Bern Herbolsheimer.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently applauded this commitment, stating “it’s not surprising that Coleman…would devote an entire program to contemporary music.  He has long been an advocate for living composers.”