Hailed for her “delightful and warm performance…all played with immediacy and conviction” by Washington Post’s Anne Midgette, Washington D.C.-based pianist Jamila Tekalli Hanner has enjoyed a career as a solo and chamber musician, educator, and arts advocate.
Dedicated to increasing diversity in the classical music field, Jamila is the Artistic Director of the Washington Musical Pathways Initiative, a talent development program for Washington D.C. area middle and high school orchestral students from communities historically excluded from classical music.
As a chamber musician, Jamila has performed with members of the National Symphony, Kennedy Center Opera, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Orlando Philharmonic on stage at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Arsht Center, and New World Center. Duo performances with her brother and violinist, Suliman Tekalli, have taken her throughout Libya in 2010 as an American Cultural Ambassador, promoting musical and cultural exchange through the U.S. Embassy, and concerts at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), Concert Artist Guild (New York), and with the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra (Mexico). She has performed in residences at the Banff Centre, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Keyboard Institute at Mannes, and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, studying with members of the Brentano String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Robert McDonald, Gilbert Kalish, and Dawn Upshaw.
Jamila holds degrees from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, the University of Miami, and the University of Central Florida, studying with notable pedagogues Evelyne Brancart, Arnaldo Cohen, Laurent Boukobza, and Tian Ying.
As an educator, Dr. Hanner serves on the piano faculty at Levine Music in Washington D.C. where her students have received awards and distinctions, with a recent feature in the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors. She served as Lecturer in Music at Barry University in Miami, Florida instructing piano, music history, and choral programs. Dr. Hanner served as director of piano workshops and adjudicator of the 2007 Concurso Internacional de Música Clásica “Jóvenes Talentos” at Fronteras Musicales Abiertas in Cuenca, Ecuador. Dr. Hanner is a member of Equity Arc, Chamber Music of America, Music Teacher’s National Association, and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.