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Fiona's Cousin
Walking with My Soul

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Tia Imani Hanna is a musician who takes listeners from one deep, swelling moment to the next, rarely pausing between chords without inhaling a fresh breath of passion into the river of her work. Ms. Hanna says her mission is “to create music that makes the listener remember they are spiritual beings, that spirit moves within us through sound, through vision, through dance…with joy and love.”

Born in Detroit, she was nurtured by a family of musicians, including her aunt, Naima Shamborguer, the popular Detroit jazz vocalist, and world-renowned jazz pianist, the late Sir Roland Hanna, who inspired her to pursue this indigenous American art form.

Ms. Hanna began performing in Detroit area festivals, benefits and concerts. After college she also hosted a popular weekly radio show called Take the "A" Train. The artist moved to New York City in 1998. Since being in New York, Ms. Hanna has performed in various clubs as a violinist with a number of different groups. She has performed with notable musicians, including: Paul West, Eddie Locke, Richard Wyands, Alisdair MacRae-Birch, Mark Johnson, Earl McIntyre, Naima Shambourguer, Marion Hayden, Gaylin McKinney, Renee Manning, Jerome Harris, Ron Jackson, Miles Griffith, and Pam Wise. Hanna was the featured violinist for the Fourth American Jazz String Summit. This event was presented at the New School Jazz department, where Hanna premiered her composition "Brazil the First Time." Hanna was the musical force behind the independent film, Inside, an original dance and music project composed by Ms. Hanna with video-choreographer, Andrea E. Woods. It has become a permanent part of the Jerome Robbins Dance collection at the New York City Public Library. She has recently toured with The Souloworks Dance Company and worked with Gesel Mason in the Washington D.C. area. Ms. Hanna's debut CD, The Book of Tia: Chapter One is available for sale on this site.

Tia Imani Hanna also produced and directed a concert of all of her published songs and compositions entitled Everything I Hear, presented at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in 2005. This concert was partially funded by a Brooklyn Arts Council grant. She is currently working on her second CD.

About her current direction, the musician says, “I am learning to sing through my instrument, ...to let my soul flow through it.” Ms. Hanna has an incredible ability to weave atmospheres with storytelling melodies and harmonies oozing rich textures of soul and raw emotion.

She’s hoarding a talent overload…wordless notes emerge from her mouth in a jaunty, jazzy way.

—Lansing State Journal

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