MA Top 30 Professional: Kori Coleman

Founder and Executive/Artistic Director
D-Composed

Look at Chicago’s arts calendar, and one name crops up everywhere: D-Composed. This year alone, the all-Black string collective—which performs most often as a quartet, with cycling membership—collaborated with bass-baritone Davóne Tines and debuted at the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Chicago International Film Festival. Earlier this year,  the ensemble made its New York debut performing with Pamela Z at the Kaufman Music Center, and in November it traveled to São Paulo to share a stage with classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes.

That D-Composed is ubiquitous is thanks to the tenacity of Kori Coleman, who founded the organization in 2017. She calls herself a “retired” violinist and oboist, though her “retirement” came early and starkly. She became discouraged when, in a predominately white school district, she studied with a teacher who, she says, “did not invest in me at all. From there, I kind of became disillusioned.”

It was only in adulthood that she learned Black classical composers existed. By then, Coleman worked—as she still does—full-time as a creative and brand strategist. She decided to focus her knack for experiential marketing on chamber music series highlighting “music by Black composers, featuring an all-Black ensemble, while also centering on Black audiences.”

D-Composed’s early bookings accompanied wellness and yoga classes marketed to Black Chicagoans—still a facet of the organization, under the billing D-Compressed. Coleman heard from attendees that they would much rather have sat and listened to the music. With the return to live performance after the pandemic, the group started appearing in more traditional concert settings, usually as an invited guest of other organizations.

“Collaborations are our bread and butter. One of my goals is not to fully self-present—if you do it all on your own and you’re trying to rent space, it’s just not sustainable,” she says. 

But it may be soon. D-Composed’s budget has grown from $500 in its first year to $250,000 last year, mostly from grants and earned revenue from partnerships and commissions.

“With all of our programming, it’s really about meeting our community where they are and thinking about who our audience is as people, not just as demographics and neighborhoods,” Coleman says.