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"Wild...unearthly...lyrical...a voice worth listening to."
- Jerry Kuderna, San Francisco Classical Voice "Deceptively laid back...inventive...unconventional." - Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times "...illustrates the evocative power and emotional punch that can result when a composer goes all in..." - Paul Muller, Sequenza21 "...a plush and tightly constructed piece that is filled with colorful imagery...shimmered like moonlight on water." - Aaron Keebaugh, Boston Classical Review "Beautiful...quirky...ingeniously wrought gestures, as much timbral as melodic....it's the kind of music that -- now euphonious/now jarring, now calm/now flighty -- is exciting to live in." - Damjan Rakonjac, The Artificialist |
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Alexander Elliott Miller (b. 1982, Boston, MA) is a musician and educator based in Southern California. Active as a composer and electric guitarist, he has collaborated with and been commissioned by Grammy-nominated musicians including Vicki Ray, Tony Arnold and Aron Kallay. His compositions have been performed by adventurous new music groups including Juventas New Music Ensemble, Earplay New Chamber Music, HOCKET, the Boston New Music Initiative, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Quintet Attacca, and the What's Next? Ensemble, a group of which he was Co-Director. His music has been presented on concert series including People Inside Electronics, Synchromy, the Carlsbad, TUTTI, Hear Now, Aspen and Bowdoin Music Festivals, and received honors including the Earplay Donald Aird Composers Award and a MacDowell Fellowship.
With backgrounds in rock, classical and jazz guitar, Miller has performed extensively as a solo guitarist and as a member of the What's Next? Ensemble. He has been a frequent performer of his own compositions for guitar, especially his classical guitar solo Flatiron, and a new large suite, TO....OBLIVION: Historic Landmarks Around Los Angeles, a work for electric guitar, electronics and video that examines the constantly changing landscape of Los Angeles. He has performed as a guest guitarist with the Long Beach Opera and the Color Field Ensemble.
Miller is on the faculty of California State University Long Beach, where he teaches music theory, composition and ear training, as well as Chapman University, where he created a introductory song writing class for non-music majors. He previously served on the faculties of Illinois State University, the University of Southern California, West Chester University of Pennsylvania and California Lutheran University, and has worked with high school students, leading after-school music education programs in Los Angeles with funding from the American Composers Forum.
He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees in Composition & Guitar Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with additional studies in Max/MSP at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music & Audio Technology (CNMAT).
With backgrounds in rock, classical and jazz guitar, Miller has performed extensively as a solo guitarist and as a member of the What's Next? Ensemble. He has been a frequent performer of his own compositions for guitar, especially his classical guitar solo Flatiron, and a new large suite, TO....OBLIVION: Historic Landmarks Around Los Angeles, a work for electric guitar, electronics and video that examines the constantly changing landscape of Los Angeles. He has performed as a guest guitarist with the Long Beach Opera and the Color Field Ensemble.
Miller is on the faculty of California State University Long Beach, where he teaches music theory, composition and ear training, as well as Chapman University, where he created a introductory song writing class for non-music majors. He previously served on the faculties of Illinois State University, the University of Southern California, West Chester University of Pennsylvania and California Lutheran University, and has worked with high school students, leading after-school music education programs in Los Angeles with funding from the American Composers Forum.
He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees in Composition & Guitar Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with additional studies in Max/MSP at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music & Audio Technology (CNMAT).
