JUDGES' BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Jamila Tekalli Hanner, Piano Solo
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.
Dr. Ivo Kaltchev, Piano Solo
Prizewinner of international piano competitions and a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, pianist Ivo Kaltchev has enjoyed a successful performing career as recitalist, soloist with orchestras, chamber musician, and recording artist. “Formidable technique” (Piano Journal, England), “possesses the genius of rubato” (Diapason, France), “distinctive and original” (Soviet Culture, Russia), “impressive” (Frankfurter Neue Presse, Germany), “most beautifully and idiomatically played” (International Record Review, England), “glittering,” “big technique” (Washington Post, U.S.), “a master of the whole range of pianistic attacks and coloristic effects” (The Star Ledger, U.S.)—these are some of the words that music critics have used to describe Dr. Kaltchev’s artistry and piano playing.
Dr. Kaltchev has performed in musical centers throughout the world, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Changsha Concert Hall, China Conservatory Concert Hall, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory’s Malii and Rachmaninov Halls, St. Petersburg State Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, Salle Moliere (Lyon, France), Tel Aviv Museum Recanati Auditorium, Mendelssohn Hochschule für Musik Hall (Leipzig, Germany), Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, and the Bulgaria Great Hall. He has been a guest artist at music festivals in Austria, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Ukraine, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, Canada and the U.S. Some of the highlights of recent seasons include a solo recital and a concerto performance with the EOS Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, concert tours in Asia, as well as performances of the complete solo piano works of Claude Debussy as well as the complete art songs of Henri Duparc. A respected chamber musician, Dr. Kaltchev has performed with Shanghai String Quartet, Harrington String Quartet, pianists Ilana Vered and Milena Mollova, French actress Marie Christine Barrault as well with members of the New York Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Dr. Kaltchev’s critically acclaimed commercial recordings for the Bulgarian “Gega New” label include an all-Charles Griffes CD (hailed by the French magazine Diapason as “the most accomplished interpretation known until now”), a CD with the world premieres of solo piano works by the French composer Florent Schmitt, as well as a recently released CD with works of Debussy.
Dr. Kaltchev holds degrees and diplomas from Yale University and Rutgers University, Sofia Academy of Music, and the Liszt Hochschule für Musik (Weimar). He is the recipient of the Catholic University of America Awards for Overall Teaching Excellence (2017) and Achievement in the Creative Arts (2019) as well as to other piano pedagogy awards for teaching excellence presented by the Piano Teachers Society of America, the American Protégé International Concerto Competition, the Princeton Steinway Society and other organizations. He has presented lectures, workshops, and master classes in Europe, China, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands, and the U.S.
Dr. Kaltchev is an active adjudicator and has judged international piano competitions in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S. Dr. Kaltchev’s students have won more than 70 prizes at international and national piano competitions and have performed with numerous orchestras including I Solisti di Perugia (Italy) and Orquestra De Camara De Cascais E Oeiras (Portugal). His students have been accepted for graduate and undergraduate piano studies at Juilliard, Peabody, Eastman, Manhattan, Indiana, San Francisco, Northwestern, Mannes, SUNY Stony Brook, Roosevelt, Miami and other leading universities and schools of music in the U.S.
Currently, Dr. Kaltchev is Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Area at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is the co-director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival (www.lancasterpianofest.com) as well as the Artistic Director of the Bulgarian Music Society Concert Series at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, DC (www.bulgarianmusicsociety.org ). He has taught as a Visiting Piano Professor at the Beijing China Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music.
Dr. Marjory Serrano-Coyer, String Solo and Chamber
Dr. Marjory Serrano-Coyer began her violin studies in Venezuela at age 7 studying with Ismenia Molina at the Aragua Symphony Foundation. As a teen she studied at the Academia Latinoamericana de Violin with Jose Francisco del Castillo and Sergio Celis. While in Venezuela she also studied with a number of additional noted teachers including Maestro William Naranjo, Luis Miguel Gonzalez and Pablo Vazquez.
In 2001 she moved to the United States to study at Shenandoah Conservatory under Marc Ramirez and Akemi Takayama. She completed an MA in Violin Performance, Artist's Diplomas in Violin and String Quartet Studies. She finished her studies at Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), where she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree under Jody Gatwood in Violin Performance with a specialization in Latin American music. She has taken master classes with leading figures such as Midori, Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist John O'Conor.
Dr. Serrano-Coyer has performed in numerous festivals including Union de las Artes (Guama, Venezuela), Curso de Violin (Tabay, Venezuela), Festival Internacional de Música Bariloche (Argentina), Las Vegas Music Festival, Idyllwild Music Festival (under the baton of Larry Livingston), the National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge, Colorado), and the Castleton Music Festival Orchestra under the baton of then-New York Philharmonic conductor Lorin Maazel. In 2007.
Her new album, Sonatas Venezolanas, released 29 September 2023, features world premier recordings of two sonatas composed by historically and culturally significant mid 20th century Venezuelan composers, Angel Sauce and Nelly Mele Lara.
Dr. Serrano is currently an adjunct faculty at Frederick Community College in Maryland.
Jiyoon Oh, Woodwind/Brass
Oboist Jiyoon Oh earned a Bachelor of Music from The Korea National University of Art in South Korea. Upon completion of her degree, she moved to Cologne, Germany to attend the University of Music where she earned her Diploma degree and a Diploma of Orchestral soloist. She also completed a Chamber Music performance program from the University of Music in Mannheim.
Ms. Oh has performed as a soloist, symphony orchestra musician, and chamber musician in Europe, Asia and North America. She has served as the principal oboe of Washington Chamber Orchestra, Bayerische Philharmonic Orchestra in Munich, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonic Orchestra, the Solo Cor-Anglais of Sinfonie Orchestra Aachen, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Orchestra in Ludwigshafen and Korea Symphony Orchestra.
A dedicated chamber musician, she was a member of Villa Musica (Mainz, Germany). With this ensemble, she performed throughout Europe and China. She was also a member and founder of ‘Floeno Trio’ (Flute, oboe and piano) in Germany.
She has received honors including The Corrin Prize at Barbirolli International Oboe Competition in Britain, First Prize at L’Estro Armonico International Competition in Italy, First Prize at Singapore Woodwind International Competition in Singapore, and Second Prize at Amici della Musica International Competition in Italy.
Ms. Oh is the principal oboe of The Wachington Chamber Orchestra and an Oboe Teaching Artist at Mason Community Arts Academy in Fairfax, Virginia.