Scott Allen Miller is a composer, music theorist, educator, and bassist in New York City. His music establishes fluid sound worlds through unconventional performance techniques and microtonal harmonies. Miller has recently written pieces for Johnna Wu, PinkNoise, Spark Duo, loadbang, the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, Occasional Symphony, Nebula Ensemble, and Omnibus Ensemble. Awards include the 2015 Macht Orchestral Composition Competition for Pillars, erased and the 2013 Ethos Laureate Prize for his chamber opera Randall’s Leaf. Miller was a Finalist in the 2016 BMI Student Composers Awards and received an Honorable Mention from the 2016 Minnesota Composer’s Institute.

Miller studied with Jason Eckardt and Suzanne Farrin at the CUNY Graduate Center where he earned a PhD in 2024. As a bassist, Miller has recently premiered works by Charles Rudig, Itzá Garcia, Tobias Fandel, and Thanakarn Schofield. Miller’s research, which has been presented internationally, analyzes music of 20th and 21st century composers including Kate Soper, Jacob Collier, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Luciano Berio, using theories of semiotics, microtonality, microrhythm, and (post)modernism. Working with advisor Kofi Agawu, Miller completed a dissertation that analyses Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit (2016) as a work of ambiguous (dis)unity that expresses the contingency and provisionality of meaning through semiotic inquiries into fluidity, authority, veracity, and (un)intelligibility. 

Miller graduated from the Peabody Conservatory in 2015 where he studied with Kevin Puts, earning Master of Music degrees in composition and music theory pedagogy. Previously, Miller studied composition and double bass at SUNY Fredonia where he received a Bachelor of Music degree through his work with bassist Harry Jacobson and composers Robert Deemer, Karl Boelter, and Sean Doyle. As a Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2016, Miller had the privilege of studying with Christopher Theofanidis and Stephen Hartke, as well as participating in masterclasses and brief lessons with Kaija Saariaho, Ted Hearne, Sean Shepherd, Donald Crocket, and Timo Andres. Other summer programs include the Atlantic Music Festival (2018) and the Charlotte New Music Festival (2013). Additional teachers with whom Miller has taken lessons and participated in masterclasses include Nils Vigeland, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Ludwig, Christopher Dobrian, Pierre Jalbert, Richard Danielpour, Zhou Long, George Tsontakis, Christopher Rouse, Michael Hersch, Daron Hagon, Paul Colman, Marc Mellits, and Lansing McLoskey.

Miller has taught at the Peabody Preparatory, Carroll Community College, and Baruch College. He currently teaches music theory, composition, form and analysis, counterpoint, ear training, keyboard musicianship, orchestration, and music history as a private tutor and as an Adjunct Professor at College of Staten Island (CUNY) and Westminster Choir College (Rider University). [musicmiller.com / https://soundcloud.com/scott-allen-miller ]

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