Dr. Paul W. Miller

Dr. Paul W. Miller

Piano, Drums

Active as a teacher, composer and performer, Paul W. Miller is a practicing musician (piano and drums) whose professional career spans over 50 years and two continents.  He studied drums with Robert J. Williams and Joe Morello, piano with John Valerio, Peter Geisselbrecht and Gary Nesteruk and music composition with Daniel J. Perlongo (Professor of Music Composition at IUP), Clifford Taylor (Professor of Music Composition at Temple University) and Bojidar Dimov (Professor of New Music and Composition at the Rheinischen Musikschule in Köln, Germany). Miller’s work as a composer, which includes piano music, chamber music, music for orchestra, music for mixed ensembles, works in the jazz idiom, choral works, songs, and music for band, has been heard in leading venues in the United States, Germany and the Czech Republic.  His Sonata for Cello and Piano won First Prize in the College Music Society European Composition Competition and was also awarded the Dr. John Henry Heller Prize for music composition at Temple University.  His works have been performed and/or recorded by (among others) Ted Rosenthal, Marylene Dosse, Dick Oatts, Scott Colley, Terry Clark, John Swana, Ron Stabinsky, The Riverside String Quartet, The Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, members of the Bonn (Germany) Opera Orchestra, The Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, The Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra and The Pottsville Area High School Band. Miller’s work is showcased in his two-act opera, A Coal Region Opera (composed in 1991), which was performed as the centerpiece of American Music Week in Bonn, Germany, in November, 1993.  This production was awarded financial support by both the German government and the United States Department of State, which also supported the show’s tour of Germany and the Czech Republic.  A concert version of A Coal Region Opera was performed at Carnegie Recital Hall in Manhattan in May, 1994. Miller has taught at Temple University in Philadelphia (1985-1989), Overbrook High School in Philadelphia (1986), The New School University in Manhattan (1999-2002), Phillipps University of Marburg in Marburg, Germany (1996), and since 2005, has been teaching at the Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Musikpaedagogik at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany.  From 1989 until his retirement in 2017, Miller was Assistant Professor of Music and Humanities at The Pennsylvania State University Schuylkill Campus. Miller earned a B.A. in Music (Percussion Performance) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition from Temple University in Philadelphia.
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