Daily Inspiration Quote by Cy Coleman

There is a quiet power move in Cy Coleman framing his origin story this way: not as a “composer who learned to perform,” but as a performer who later wrote the material. In a single, offhand sentence, he claims a kind of authority that’s hard to teach and easy to hear. It’s the difference between writing notes that look good on paper and writing moments that land in a room.

Coleman’s career sits right at that crossroads. A jazz pianist with serious chops who became a Broadway hitmaker (Sweet Charity, City of Angels), he worked in a world where music isn’t built for the conservatory; it’s built for bodies, breath, timing, and the fickle chemistry between stage and audience. “My background was in performing originally” signals that his instincts were trained by the immediate feedback loop of the gig: what swings, what drags, where the laugh arrives, how long a phrase can live before it collapses.

The subtext is also defensive in an old Broadway way: legitimacy. Composers are often treated as the “brain” and performers as the “delivery system.” Coleman flips that hierarchy. Performing becomes the source code, the proof that he understands what music is for. It’s a modest statement that doubles as a mission statement: craft that serves the show, music that knows it has to survive the spotlight, and a composer who never forgets the human on the other side of the footlights.