Cassandra Miller (born Metchosin, British Columbia, Canada, 1976) [1] is a Canadian experimental composer currently based in London, England. Her work is known for frequently utilising the process of transcription of a variety of pre-existing pieces of music. [2]
She has been widely commissioned by international orchestras, ensembles and soloists, and has won the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music twice, in 2016 and in 2011. [3] In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked her Duet for cello and orchestra (2015) the 19th greatest work of art music since 2000, with Kate Molleson writing, "Miller is a master of planting a seed and setting in motion an entrancing process, then following through with the most sumptuous conviction." [4]
Since 2018, she has been Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, UK. [5]
Miller studied with Christopher Butterfield at the University of Victoria (2005) and at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (2008) with Richard Ayres and Yannis Kyriakides before studying privately with Michael Finnissy in 2012. [6]
Miller returned to academic research in 2014, as a PhD candidate at the University of Huddersfield, supervised by Dr Bryn Harrison and supported by the Jonathan Harvey Scholarship. [7]
Miller's music has been commissioned and performed by orchestras including BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, [8] the Oslo Philharmonic, [9] the Toronto Symphony Orchestra [10] and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. [11] Ensembles who have performed her work include EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, [12] I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus-Minus, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, and Continuum Contemporary Music.
She has ongoing artistic relationships with the soprano Juliet Fraser [13] and the Canadian string quartet Quatour Bozzini, for whom she wrote the pieces About Bach (2015), [14] Leaving (2011), Warblework (2011) and Just So (2008/2018). These four works were released as an album by the label Another Timbre in 2018, [15] [16] alongside a second album of her orchestra and ensemble music. [17]
From 2010 to 2013, Miller also was artistic director of the concert series "Innovations en concert" in Montreal. [2] [18] Miller moved to London to take up the post of Associate Head of Composition (Undergraduate) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in September 2018. [19]
In March 2023, her viola concerto, I cannot love without trembling, was premiered. This piece was commissioned by violist Lawrence Power, BBC Radio 3, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. [20] [21]
Miller often bases her work on pre-existing music, for example: a computer transcription of Kurt Cobain singing the folk song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", in For Mira (2012), written for violinist Mira Benjamin, [15] [22] a recording of Maria Callas singing "Vissi d’arte" from Puccini's opera Tosca in Bel Canto (2010), [12] and a recording by Mozambican mbira player Zhukake Masingi in Philip the Wanderer (2012). [23] [24]
Her work takes these transcriptions as starting points, investigating her response to the music through processes of repetition and looping. [23] Often the source material is unrecognisable in Miller's finished works. [15]
Her works employ musical notation, but also sometimes recordings of the source music, which performers learn by memory, such as a recording of the blues singer Maria Muldaur, which Miller uses in her piece Guide (2013). [25]
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.
David Matthews is an English composer of mainly orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano works.
Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Chen Yi is a Chinese-American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts (M.A.) in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji, and has received awards from the Koussevistky Music Foundation and American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School and in 2012, she was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.
Matthew King is a British composer, pianist, and educator. His works include opera, piano and chamber music, and choral and orchestral pieces. He has been described by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music, as “one of Britain's most adventurous composers, utterly skilled, imaginative, and resourceful."
John Woolrich is an English composer.
Huw Thomas Watkins is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson. He then went on to read music at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr, and completed an MMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson. Huw Watkins was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, where he used to teach composition. He is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music.
Matthew Taylor is an English composer and conductor.
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
Matthew Jones is a British violist, violinist and composer primarily known for his international performance work as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He also holds a Viola Professorship and is Head of Chamber Music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and runs an in-demand performance health consultancy practice. He is fluent in Italian.
Anna Clyne is an English composer, now resident in New York City, US. She has worked in both acoustic music and electroacoustic music.
Julia Gomelskaya was a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music.
Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir is an Icelandic composer. She has been called "one of Iceland's most celebrated composers", and was the 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. Her music is frequently performed in Europe and in the United States, and is often influenced by landscapes and nature.
Martin Suckling is a British composer. He is also a violinist and teacher.
Dr James Weeks is a British composer, conductor and teacher of composition.
Nicole Lizée is a Canadian composer of contemporary music. She was born in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan and received a MMus from McGill University. She lives in Montreal, Quebec. At one time, she was a member of The Besnard Lakes, an indie rock band from Montreal.
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