Luke Edison Coker is a composer, conductor, and cellist studying as an honors student at UNC-Chapel Hill on a full-ride music scholarship. Coker began cello lessons at the age of 3, and started teaching himself to compose at age 4. In his first two years at UNC, he has received commissions from the Durham Symphony Orchestra, UNC Wind Ensemble, UNC Cello Studio, Cantiamo Chamber Choir, and Dogwood Piano Trio. His orchestral works have also been read and recorded by the UNC Symphony Orchestra and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. In 2025, he conducted a chamber orchestra of fellow Kenan Music Scholars in the premiere of his piece “Carolina Romp,” which most clearly embodies his voice: boisterous, buoyant, and bucolic.
As a cellist, he has performed internationally at the Cremona International Music Festival in Italy and with numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles. This includes performing alongside MacArthur Fellow and GRAMMY-winning violinist Johnny Gandelsman in the 2025 premiere of “Circus Machinery” for string quartet, as a part of Carolina Performing Arts’ acclaimed This is America concert series. At the UNC School of the Arts CelloFORWARD Festival in 2024, his piece for cello choir was workshopped by GRAMMY-winning cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios. At UNC, he performs with the Symphony Orchestra and University Chamber Players, and previously was a member of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra, Western Regional Honors Orchestra, and NC All-State Honors Orchestra.
With the Student Film Association at UNC, he has worked on films produced through the annual Studio Process competition, both as a film composer (“Darling,” dir. Gabriela Santiago 2026) and lead actor (“How Does It Feel?” dir. Kiran Garcha 2025).
Coker minors in religious studies, and is currently collaborating with UNC faculty on independent research into Himalayan Buddhism. He also serves as a poetry reader for Cellar Door, UNC’s oldest undergraduate literary magazine, and is involved with organizations including Carolina Artists’ Coalition, Jiu Jitsu Club, and Chapel Hill Zen Center. In his free time, he enjoys meditating, reading, training in wrestling and jiu jitsu, and long walks in the woods.