Education
I feel very fortunate to have become skillful at playing this beautiful instrument.” She attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, a nationally recognized incubator for musical talent.
I feel very fortunate to have become skillful at playing this beautiful instrument.” She attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, a nationally recognized incubator for musical talent.
A classically trained musician, Mills commenced her formal music instruction in piano at age four. She recounts: "I tried cello, guitar, and clarinet, before finally settling on the flute as my instrument of choice. At first glance, I did not want to play it (the flute) at all.
I remember looking at the picture as my teacher placed it in front of me, and frowning and saying, ‘I do not want to play this!’ But once I carried it home and opened the case, I even liked the smell which was that of the band room at school.
Allat once, the flute grew on medical I thought it was beautiful and still do.
Prominent alumni include jazz artists Helen Sung, Robert Glasper, Kendrick Scott, Jason Moran, and popular music sensation, Beyoncé Knowles. Mills was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical 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.
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. A European tour followed. 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.
In addition, in 2011 she toured with her legendary instructor Hubert Laws and in 2012 with tenor saxophonist Billy Harper.
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. 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.
