Born in Wausau, Wisconsin, Gloria Coates began composing at an early age, winning a National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Contest at the age of twelve. After earning a Masters of Music Degree in Composition at Louisiana State University, she continued postgraduate studies in composition at Columbia University with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson. From 1975 to 1983 she taught for the University of Wisconsin’s International Programs and initiated the music program in London and Munich.
Gloria Coates has been invited to lecture on her music with concerts at Harvard, Brown, Princeton, the University of Wisconsin Madison (with master-classes), Torun, Poland, the College of Music Munich, and in India at the Max Mueller Bavahns of New Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay. While maintaining a residence in the United States, Gloria Coates has lived since 1969 in Europe, where she has been an active champion of American music. She has lectured, written musicological articles, produced and broadcast radio programs on WDR Cologne, Radio Bremen and the Bavarian Radio.
From 1971 to 1984 she produced a concert series of German-American music in Munich, subsidised by the Munich Ministry of Culture and the Alice Ditson Fund of Columbia University. Gloria Coates is primarily known for her symphonies, of which she has written fifteen. Her best known work is Music on Open Strings (Symphony No. 1), written in 1973, which was first performed at the 1978 Warsaw Autumn Festival, and proved to be the most widely discussed work in that Festival. It was a finalist for the KIRA International Koussevitzsky Award in 1986 as ‘one of the most important compositions to appear on record that year’.
Her music has been heard at the Dresden Festival, New Music America - New York 1989, the Passau International Festival, the Dartington Festival in England, the Montepulciano Festival Italy, the New York Microtonal Festival, Aspeckte Festival Salzburg, and at the March Music - Berlin Festival 2004. The music of Gloria Coates has been performed by leading soloists and ensembles, such as the Kronos Quartet, the Kreuzer Quartet, Crash Ensemble Dublin, New Century Chamber Orchestra - San Francisco, City of London Sinfonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Polish Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Her canon of work includes compositions for orchestra, with fifteen symphonies, chamber music, of which there are eight string quartets, solo pieces, vocal and choral music for orchestra and ensembles, electronic works, as well as music for the theatre.
