Welcome!

David Freeman Coleman is a Boston-based composer, educator, music director, and speaker specializing in multiple genres of music - Classical, Gospel, Choral, Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, and Musical Theater - as well as leadership efforts in DEI work at the academic and artistic institutions he works with.

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Currently an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music, and formertly an Associate Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Coleman is a Lecturer of Music at Tufts University, the Director of 225-voice Tufts Gospel Choir, and the Minister of Music at Greater Framingham Community Church, Coleman is sought after as a musician and as a teacher in several different spaces which allows him to be a bridge between diverse communities and an ambassador for the arts.

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A graduate of Boston University College of Fine Arts and Tufts University he has assembled and directed choirs for Mariah Carey, Ryan Gosling, Bobby McFerrin, Patti Labelle, and Phish.  He has performed in dozens of schools, churches, prisons and shelters as well as Fenway Park, Carnegie Hall, the Vatican, and the White House.

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As a composer,  songwriter, and producer, he has recorded 10 CD's of his original work, which is featured on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon.  He is a four-time nominee and the 2023 recipient of the Eliot Norton Award for Outstanding Music Direction.  He is the 2013 recipient of two New England Urban Music Awards.  In 2021, he was a featured artist with the Boston Pops, both as a soloist and as a co-host with Keith Lockhart, engaging in discussions of race, cultural appropriation, and the significance of Jazz music.  He has been commissioned to compose pieces for the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Chorus, including the 2021 Holiday at Pops feature, "The Good News Voyage."