Hanna Sterba maintains an active freelance career and private teaching studio in Chicagoland. She can be heard performing orchestral, chamber, and solo performances throughout the city.
Hanna enjoys a varied career as a substitute musician, having played with the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago Philharmonic, Music of the Baroque, Illinois Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Michigan Opera Theatre, among others. She has previously held positions with the Canton Symphony Orchestra and Wheeling Symphony.
Hanna has performed with several prominent music festivals both in the United States and abroad, including the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Bellingham Festival of Music, Cayman Arts Festival in the Caribbean, Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, Kent/Blossom Music, and Le Domaine Forget.
With a passion for arts education, Hanna holds the position of Instructor of Applied Bassoon at Loyola University Chicago. She is the Event Chair of the Double Double Workshop, an event for young double reed and double bass students hosted by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Hanna is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was the recipient of the 2006 George F. Goslee prize in bassoon recognizing outstanding artistry. Her principal teachers have included John Clouser and Ronald Phillips.
Her instrument is a late seven-thousand series Heckel made in 1936. She specializes in the Garfield reed style.
In her free time, Hanna is an amateur ceramic artist and avid gardener. She is the winner of a 2019 Chicago Excellence in Gardening award.