Ms. Hong Coleman’s life and education started in Spartanburg, South Carolina. One of three daughters of Korean immigrants, she received scholarships to study with Dorothy Delay and Kurt Sassmannshaus in the Cincinnati Concervatory of Music before completing a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from Princeton University, followed by a Masters degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ronald Copes and Robert Mann of the Juilliard Quartett. In 2001 she went to Berlin as a Fulbright scholar to study with Thomas Brandis where she planned to remain for one year. 

 

Two decades later, she is still in Europe. She is a passionate educator, chamber musician, and orchestral leader.  Meesun Hong Coleman is professor of violin and chamber music at the Anton Bruckner University Linz as well as guest professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, concertmaster of the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Haydn Philharmonie, and member of the Camerata Bern, where she is also a regular guest director and soloist. She places a particular importance not only on musical integrity, but also on innovative programming and audience development.

 

As a sought after guest leader, she regularly leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stuttgart Chamber Orchester, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Het Gelders Orkest, and as principal with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others. As an orchestral director and chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous soloists from across the musical board, from Baroque on period instruments to jazz and experimental music. The list of her co-conspirators is long and includes the most renowned artists of their genres, for example Patricia Kopatschinskaya, Sergio Azzolini, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Unhide, Steven Isserlis, Isabelle Faust, Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Gyorgy Kurtag, Nicolas Altstedt, Nigel Kennedy, tango legend Richard Galliano, the Israeli jazz trio Avishai Cohen, Ute Lemper.. etc. etc. She has also performed numerous contemporary works, collaborating, performing and often premiering works of the foremost composers of our generation, including Gyorgy Kurtag, Jörg Widmann, George Benjamin, David Phillip Hefti, Peter Oetvos, etc. 

 

As a soloist and chamber musician worldwide, she has appeared at such festivals as the Salzburg Festival, Gstaad Festival, Luzern Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Ojai Festival, and Rheingau Festival, to name a few, in such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Beijing Performing Arts Center, and the Berlin Philharmonie. She is a repeat offender at the the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall for whom she has also toured, and has recently appeared as a senior artist and performer at the renowned Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.

 

Ms. Hong Coleman resides in Salzburg with her husband and two daughters, and she performs on a Matteo Goffriller from 1700.