The Tekalli Duo

The Tekalli Duo has performed internationally across the Americas and overseas, leaving audiences breathless by their depth of individual technical mastery as well as their shared musical intuition. Highly versatile in their performing capacities, Tekalli Duo has appeared as duo soloists with orchestra, recitalists, educators, and American musical ambassadors abroad. Their diverse ethnic background greatly influences their passion to connect the world through the language of music.

In March of 2014, they performed the Mendelssohn Double Concerto with La Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico, which was broadcasted on Radio Universidad de Guanajuato. Their recitals have been presented by Concert Artists Guild in NYC, as well as the Odeon and Woodbridge Chamber Series. They gave the Canadian premiere of Michael Brown’s Violin Sonata, which they commissioned, as well as Suliman Tekalli’s transcription of Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin at the Banff Centre. Tekalli Duo has also lead masterclasses at the University of Tampa. Under the auspices of the United States Embassy as a musical exchange of Western and Middle Eastern music, Tekalli Duo appeared as performers in pre-revolutionary Libya at the University of Tripoli.  In 2015, the duo performed a recital presented by the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, which also featured a live broadcast of their concert on WFMT Chicago radio.   Tekalli Duo’s repertoire includes the duo concerto and sonata repertory of the classics through romantic, 20th century and contemporary periods. Their recitals invariably mix standard classical repertory with newer works by composers of their heritage such as Fazil Say and Takemitsu, as well as their own transcriptions of classical and contemporary music.

Violinist Suliman Tekalli has established himself as an exciting and versatile soloist and chamber musician, lauded for his visceral yet elegant and intelligent style of performance. Mr. Tekalli has performed as soloist with major orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia from Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center to Seoul Arts Center in Korea. He is a top prize-winner of the 2015 Seoul International Music Competition, a prize winner at the Sendai International Music Competition, Lipizer and Szeryng International Violin Competitions, and the 2004 Blount Young Artist Competition. His performances have also been broadcasted on live TV and radio, from the KBS TV in Korea to Montreal, Canada's CBC Radio 3.

Early career highlights included being featured on NPR’s From the Top at the age of 11, and his formal debut with the Orlando Philharmonic at the age of 16. Mr. Tekalli performed for President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye in June of 2015 at a gala performance in Washington D.C.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Tekalli has performed at Yellow Barn Festival, Banff Centre’s Chamber Music Festival, and Sarasota. He has performed alongside such distinguished artists as Cho-Liang Lin, David Shifrin, and members of the Emerson Quartet and the Tokyo String Quartet. He performs regularly worldwide as a soloist with the International Sejong Soloists.

Pianist Dr. Jamila Tekalli has been awarded finalist of the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition, first place in the Indiana Steinway Collegiate Piano Competition and National Finalist in the Baldwin Piano Competition. Solo orchestral engagements include performances of Sergei Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, Franz Liszt’sTotentanz with Indiana University’s Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Imre Pallo, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the Space Coast Symphony.

As an actively performing chamber musician, she has toured throughout Ecuador, performing a series of chamber concerts in Quito, Loja, and Cuenca, in addition to directing several masterclasses and piano workshops in Loja Conservatory and Fronteras Musicales Abiertas.  Additionally, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals including Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Keyboard Institute at Mannes, and the Banff Centre.

Tekalli holds a doctorate in performance from the University of Miami, as well as degrees from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, and the University of Central Florida. Her training is indebted to private studies with Evelyne Brancart, Arnaldo Cohen, Laurent Boukobza, Tian Ying, Zalina Gurevich and Leonidas Lipovetsky.  Dr. Tekalli is currently Adjunct Professor of Piano at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL and a Piano Faculty member at Camp Encore Coda in Sweden, Maine.