Spring semester is a busy time for any Tufts senior, but one glance at the recent schedule of senior Jason Coleman is sure to challenge that of any other busy or over-worked student on campus. As a renowned young cellist and musical composer, Coleman regularly performs two to three times a week on campus and at several more gigs off-campus.
He attends private lessons, practices four hours per day, composes every day and attends a multitude of rehearsals required by all of his musical performance groups.
In order to simplify a schedule that might threaten to overwhelm him, Coleman has eliminated one often frustrating step: the selection of daily attire.
Rejecting the usual college fare of jeans and hooded sweatshirts, Coleman chooses to wear only black dress pants and black dress shirts, with a black blazer in cold weather.
"His entire closet is composed of black clothing," said sophomore Ryan Veiga, a fellow musician. "It's like he's prepared to give a concert at any time, day or night."
"I wear black by default," Coleman said. "It's easy to match; it makes shopping, dressing and washing brainless."
Of course, this can't come close to solving all of Coleman's time constraints.
He must also manage graduate school applications, regular classes and desperate attempts to spend time with friends before graduation.
"I have learned to organize my life a certain way, which means that I spend a lot of time nurturing and cultivating my craft and technique," Coleman said.
"People will say 'We hardly see you anymore,' but if they're close friends, they'll understand that this is what you're doing," he added.
Coleman made the decision to so fully dedicate his life to music during his sophomore year at Tufts.
After a rough semester of organic chemistry, Coleman realized that although he enjoyed science, his real passion was music.
"I was looking for that good security job to make me respectable in society, but I always found myself either in the practice room, or complaining that I didn't have enough time to practice," he said.
Deciding to drop his pre-med plans was difficult for Coleman, but since then, his musical career has flourished - particularly in the area of composing.
In the past year, Coleman has written a number of musical compositions, many of which have been performed by various on and off-campus groups and professional musicians.
Recently, he wrote the music to accompany the Drama Department's production of Meng Jinghui's "Heads or Tails."
Coleman's prolific work is widely appreciated by students and faculty alike.
"His compositions aren't always necessarily tonal, but they're more coherent and make more sense than some modern pieces I've heard," said senior Klementyne Weyman, a fellow musician who has performed with Coleman in a number of small ensembles for nearly three years, most recently playing a piece of his own.
"Jason's works can take on many different flavors, depending on what he is trying to express," fellow musician and composer senior Elliot Cless said.
"But they are all well-crafted and interesting to trained and untrained ears," Cless added. "As someone who only got into composing in the past couple of years, Jason's abilities and work ethic have provided a great example for me."
Many of those most familiar with Coleman's compositions note his ability to integrate a dark sense of humor into his music.
"There's often a hint of violent humor in his music - little subversive touches that make it always interesting," said Music Professor John McDonald.
For example, one of Coleman's personal favorite compositions is the first of what is intended to be a 15-part series entitled "Ancient Ritual Music."
In this first installment, Coleman reports being influenced by Vietnamese and Cambodian styles, which often use marimba-like percussion and reed instrumentation to convey actions and scenes.
"A lot of their pieces describe daily life - going out and bring the harvest, or just describing what the moonlight is like," Coleman said.
Twisting this concept ever-so-slightly, Coleman composed the first of the series to describe the ancient ritual of blood-letting, a process whereby individuals were said to be cleansed of evil spirits and curses by cutting fresh wounds and allowing them to bleed.
Entitled "Cutting Dance," the piece is a clear reflection of Coleman's penchant for black humor.
"I just thought it would be really funny if there were a whole bunch of people dancing in a circle and cutting themselves," Coleman said.
Another installment is intended to be called "Divorce," but will sound joyous and energetic.
In the distant future, Coleman would like to work as a freelance musician and composer, but in the meantime, he plans to take a semester off before attending graduate school at a musical conservatory in the Boston area.
In order to repay the Tufts community for what he feels has been a tremendously rewarding education, Coleman plans to use his free semester to offer his services as a musician to the school - free of charge.
"I know from experience how hard it is to find musicians to play your work, so I thought this could be my way of contributing to the legacy of composing," he said.
"Jason has contributed enormously to the musical community at Tufts, performing generously as a chamber musician, composing music for several dramatic productions and performing with and for his composing and performing colleagues," McDonald said. "He is selfless about this and never seems stressed."
