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"Deceptively laid back...inventive...unconventional."
- Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times "Wild...unearthly...lyrical...a voice worth listening to." - Jerry Kuderna, San Francisco Classical Voice "...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 composer, guitarist and educator based in Southern California whose music has been described as "wild...unearthly...lyrical...a voice worth listening to" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and "deceptively laid back...inventive....unconventional" (LA Times' Mark Swed). Active as a composer and electric guitarist, he has collaborated with and been commissioned by Grammy-nominated musicians including pianists Vicki Ray and Aron Kallay, and soprano Tony Arnold. His compositions have been performed by adventurous new music groups including HOCKET, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Earplay New Chamber Music, the Boston New Music Initiative, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Sound of Late, TEMPO New Music Ensemble, Definiens Ensemble, Quintet Attacca, and the What's Next? Ensemble, a group of which he was Co-Director.
In 2017, pianist Vincent Craig performed one of his compositions at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His music has also been played at London's Mile End Art Pavilion, the Aspen, Carlsbad and Oh My Ears Festivals, and at many new music concert series, including San Francisco's Center for New Music and several Los Angeles based series including Tuesdays at Monk Space, Piano Spheres, the Hear Now Festival, Synchromy New Music, People Inside Electronics, Soundwaves and Long Beach's PUMP Festival. He has 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 a large multimedia 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, CSULB Chamber Choir, the Color Field Ensemble, and appeared as a lead guitarist for singer Mikey Ferrari.
Miller is on the faculty of California State University Long Beach, where he teaches music theory, composition and musicianship at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. During the Spring of 2017 at CSULB, he served as the Interim Graduate Advisor. He also works at Chapman University, where he initiated and developed a new Composition and Songwriting course for non-music majors, which has since become a required course for Music Technology minors. In November of 2018, he will serve as Composition Masterclass Clinician for the Music Association of California Community Colleges State Conference in San Diego.
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.
In 2017, pianist Vincent Craig performed one of his compositions at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His music has also been played at London's Mile End Art Pavilion, the Aspen, Carlsbad and Oh My Ears Festivals, and at many new music concert series, including San Francisco's Center for New Music and several Los Angeles based series including Tuesdays at Monk Space, Piano Spheres, the Hear Now Festival, Synchromy New Music, People Inside Electronics, Soundwaves and Long Beach's PUMP Festival. He has 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 a large multimedia 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, CSULB Chamber Choir, the Color Field Ensemble, and appeared as a lead guitarist for singer Mikey Ferrari.
Miller is on the faculty of California State University Long Beach, where he teaches music theory, composition and musicianship at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. During the Spring of 2017 at CSULB, he served as the Interim Graduate Advisor. He also works at Chapman University, where he initiated and developed a new Composition and Songwriting course for non-music majors, which has since become a required course for Music Technology minors. In November of 2018, he will serve as Composition Masterclass Clinician for the Music Association of California Community Colleges State Conference in San Diego.
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.