Meredith Coloma

Last updated

Meredith Coloma is a Canadian musician and luthier from Vancouver.

Born in Vancouver, [1] Coloma grew up in Canada, Chile and Taiwan. [2] She attended the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. [3] At just 16, she was touring as a professional musician and began to take note of how important the construction of the instruments was. [1] By the time she turned 19, she had already apprenticed under professional luthiers, including Roger Sadowsky. [1] [4]

Coloma went on to start her own guitar-making business in Vancouver. [1] She has earned recognition for entering the male-dominated field of guitar-making as a young, queer BIPOC woman. [5] [1] [4] She is known for her handcrafted gypsy jazz guitars, mandolins, violins, ukuleles, acoustic guitars and electric guitars. [6] [4]

A singer-songwriter, Coloma was a finalist in the 2012 International Songwriting Competition in Nashville. [3] She is a co-founder of the Vancouver International Guitar Festival. [7] [8]

Boutique Builder

Coloma Guitars operates at a small scale, currently producing around ten guitars a month. [5] After finding growth and success with the Freya model Coloma began having difficulty managing the responsibilities of a growing business. [5] Coloma took a step back to asses the balance between her personal life and business in addition to managing rising customer demand. [5] In order to meet this demand she had to drastically restructure how she was running her business. [5] This meant hiring staff to meet the 180+ customers and counting that were on the waitlist. [5]

Coloma Guitars specializes in creating guitars with unique designs while maintaining affordability, such as the Freya. [5] Coloma describes the Freya as a boutique instrument (guitar) that is affordable for the working musician. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kelly, Ash (2017-06-24). "Before she was 19, Meredith Coloma was already a master in her male-dominated craft - CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  2. ↑ Mckenzie, Kevin Hinton & Ryan. "BCBusiness". BCBusiness. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  3. 1 2 Bellett, Gerry (2012-03-09). "Vancouver singer reaches finals". The Vancouver Sun. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  4. 1 2 3 Kurucz, John. "Custom made: Vancouver has more female luthiers than anywhere else in Canada". Vancouver Courier. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hernandez-Fuentes, Monique (October 22, 2025). "Interview with Coloma Guitars: Finely Crafted Guitars Made With Passion and Precision from Vancouver". Riffarella. Retrieved 2025-10-22.
  6. ↑ Lee, Jenny (2014-03-08). "B.C. provides ideal climate for six-string manufacturers". The Vancouver Sun. p. 36. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  7. ↑ Kurucz, John. "No need to fret, Vancouver guitar festival is back and bigger than ever". Vancouver Courier. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  8. ↑ Shepherd, Jeremy. "Music agent turned guitar maker talks craft". North Shore News. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.