Bio

Skot Hanna began playing and composing for the cello at the age of eight. His mother attended high school in South Africa and had brought back several drums that were mostly for decoration, but Skot played all of them until the heads were broken. He was thrown out of the elementary school orchestra for improvising excessively on the cello.

At the age of 21 he lived in the French Pyrenees mountains as a shepherd. He played bamboo shepherd’s flute for his flock all day, and ran into Lawrence Ladek, an Egyptian dumbek master who taught him North African drum language.

When Skot returned to the U.S. he studied and performed with Babatunde Olatunji in NYC and learned Yoruba drum language. He formed the group Rhythm Exchange and composed and performed across the country for several years. One of the incarnations of this group included Angelo Gonzales, who had played with the Rolling Stones and taught Skot Cuban Gua Guanco. During this time he began playing kalymba, gu cheng, and clarinet in his shows as well.

In the late 90’s Skot met Dr. Tess Onwueme, renowned African feminist author and began composing music for her dance dramas and teaching his university students to perform his mixture of traditional music and original compositions for her theater productions. During this time, he and his group became the house band of sorts for the Paul Newman hole in the wall gang camp for terminally ill children. He also performed and studied with master Tibetan flutist Lakedhen Shingsur from the National Dance troupe of Nepal.

He taught semester long classes at Washington Montessori and at Vassar College as a commissioned composer and assistant to a professor. It was then that he studied and performed with Nuanye Ibe of Nigeria and learned the Engelenge wood xylophone. He also studied and performed with the National Dance Troupe of Jamaica drummers. During this time Skot was invited to perform for the United Nations African ambassadors, at a gathering of royal families and dignitaries, and lectured in the anthropology and music departments.

He then spent three years as an artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin and performed in schools throughout the state. In 2000 Skot’s trio that included two of his university students were featured performers at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Skot then traveled to Ghana, West Africa were he studied at the University of Legon in Accra with the National Dance Troupe. He lived with the master drummer of the Dagomba Tribe and performed with Northern Troupe of Ghana. He then spent time in a remote village studying the xyile wood xylophone where he contracted malaria and nearly died.

He came home to the U.S. to perform and lecture for the National Percussive Arts Society and continued teaching and touring. He was honored as the lead drummer in the Africa Day Parade in Harlem.

Skot has performed and taught at countless universities, prep and high schools, elementary schools and venues of all kinds to rave reviews.

His shows include an element of storytelling, that weave into the music and build in excitement usually ending in a standing ovation.

Skot performs on a multitude of instruments including:

Djembe, dumbek, congas, frame drum, synthesizer hand drum, agogo bells, shakire, engelenge and xyile wood xylphone, kalymba African thumb piano, gu xheng Chinese harp.

Bamboo shepherd’s flutes from Tibet and Cambodia, alto clarinet, and clarinet.

Flamenco classical guitar, folk steel string guitar, electric guitar with looping and effects.

He sings in Swahili, Ibo, Dagbani, Twi, French, Spanish, and English.