Cynthia Haymon-Coleman, born on September 6, 1958, in Jacksonville, Florida, is an American soprano. She earned a bachelor's degree of music in vocal performance from Northwestern University. Her operatic roles include Bess in Porgy and Bess, Liù in Turandot, Mimì in La bohème, Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Micaela in Carmen, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro. Haymon-Coleman gave the world premiere of John Williams' "Seven for Luck" with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a piece based on texts by Rita Dove. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her performance as Bess, which she sang in the 1986 Glyndebourne production, the 1989 album made from that production, and the 1993 television production. Haymon-Coleman retired from the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016 and presently teaches privately from her studio in Champaign, Illinois.
