Meesun Hong Coleman

Daughter of Korean immigrants, Meesun Hong Coleman is a native of South Carolina. She studied at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Princeton University, and the Juilliard School, where she trained under Ronald Copes and Robert Mann of the Juilliard String Quartet. In 2001, she went to Berlin as a Fulbright fellow to study with Thomas Brandis and has remained in Europe ever since.

Meesun Hong Coleman is a passionate educator, chamber musician, and orchestra conductor. She is a professor of violin and chamber music at the Bruckner University in Linz, as well as a guest professor of violin at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She serves as the concertmaster of the Potsdam Chamber Academy and the Haydn Philharmonic and is a member of the Camerata Bern, where she also acts as a guest conductor and regular soloist.

Highly sought after as a guest conductor, she regularly leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, and is the principal conductor of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

As a conductor and chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous soloists, ranging from baroque repertoire with period instruments to jazz and experimental music. She has worked with some of the most renowned artists in their fields, including Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sergio Azzolini, András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Steven Isserlis, Isabelle Faust, Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, György Kurtág, Nicolas Altstaedt, and Nigel Kennedy, as well as tango legend Richard Galliano, jazz bassist Avishai Cohen, and singer Ute Lemper.

Meesun Hong Coleman has performed at music festivals in Salzburg, Gstaad, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Schleswig Holstein, Ojai, Marlboro, and Rheingau, as well as in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tokyo's Suntory Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, and the Berlin Philharmonie. She has also participated multiple times in the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall. She plays a 1700 Matteo Goffriller violin.