- Delandria Mills
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Delandria Mills 
Performing in 2010Background information Origin Houston, Texas Genres Jazz/Classical/Gospel Occupations Musician Instruments Flute Labels CD Baby Delandria Mills (born Houston, Texas), is an American jazz, gospel, and classical flutist and composer.
A classically trained musician, Mills commenced her formal music instruction in piano at age four, tried cello, guitar, and clarinet, before finally settling on the flute as her instrument of choice. She recounts: “At first glance I did not want to play it - at all. I remember looking at the picture as my teacher placed it in front of me, and frowning my face up thinking: ‘I don't want to play that!’ But once I carried it home and opened the case, I even liked the smell which was that of the band room at school! But most of all, I thought it was “beautiful.” She attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, a nationally recognized incubator for musical talent. Prominent alumni include jazz artists Helen Sung, Robert Glasper, and Kendrick Scott, and pop music sensation, Beyoncé Knowles.
Mills was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Prairie View A&M University, and both a Master of Music in Flute Performance and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. As a classical flutist, she has served as Principal of the Baytown Symphony Orchestra (in residence at Lee College), and as an Assistant and later Associate Principal at Peabody. Her teachers include the legendary flutist Hubert Laws and Marina Piccinini of Peabody Conservatory.
The music of Charlie Parker and of John Coltrane lured her to jazz, and Mills cites Hubert Laws, Freddie Hubbard, and Kim Burrell, as additional musical influences.
In 2003 Mills was awarded the top prize in National Flute Association’s Jazz Flute Competition which led to her being selected as one of six international young women to win the International Association of Jazz Educators’ Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Competition in 2005.[1] A European tour followed. She is the founder and leader of the Delandria Mills Jazz Ensemble, a member of “Soundcheck”, the critically acclaimed band behind gospel acts Greater Anointing and Tye Tribbett with whom she toured from 2003 to 2008. She has also collaborated with gospel singer Judith Christie McAllister. She is also the principal of Kingdom Flute Works, a music school in the Baltimore, Maryland area.
Mills released her CD ‘Manifestation’ in 2009,[2] and she has been featured on recordings by other artists including Fertile Ground (“Black Is”, 2004),[3] The Kevin Robinson Ensemble (“The GOD Factor”, 2004), Adidam (“Adidam, ” 2004), Tye Tribbett (“Ideas and Concepts, 2004, “Life- DVD”, 2004, “Victory”, 2005, and “Standout”, 2007), and Judith Christie McAllister (“Sound the Trumpet”, 2008). In addition, in 2011 she expected to tour with Hubert Laws and work with Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor group.
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Categories:- American jazz flautists
- American classical flautists
- People from Houston, Texas
- African American musicians
- Living people
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