Mena Hanna

Mena Mark Hanna, Ph.D., is general director and CEO of Spoleto Festival USA, America’s premier performing arts festival, based in Charleston, South Carolina. During his tenure, Spoleto has presented world premieres in theater, orchestral and chamber music, and opera, including “Omar,” winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Before joining Spoleto in 2021, Hanna served as founding dean and professor of musicology and composition at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, where he created and curated the institution’s annual festival, The Edward W. Said Days. He has served as a trustee of Gingko in London and on the board of directors of the Mahler Foundation. Currently, Hanna serves on the advisory board of The Time in Children’s Arts Initiative in New York and is a Liberty Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.