About Me

Composer and violist Jacob Miller (b. 1999) derives his art from collaboration. Whether in supporting his peers’ work as a violist or writing pieces for his community, collaboration runs through all of his work. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the University of Michigan where he currently studies under Michael Daugherty. He has also studied with Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster. While at the University of Michigan, he has premiered works by his peers, including the ballet Mirror Ritual by Griffin Candey. He has also written a solo piano work, emotional landscapes, which was premiered by Nicole Knorr in Britton Recital Hall. While his work is fueled by collaboration, his pieces are inspired by topics such as queerness, loss, religion, everyday objects, and celebrity. His orchestral composition, inspired by the music and popstar persona of Charli XCX will be premiered by the University Philharmonia Orchestra in the spring of 2024. 

As an undergraduate, he studied at Yale University under Kathryn Alexander, where he graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Music. There he served as the Artistic Director of the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Orchestra from 2020-2023. The ensemble is dedicated to promoting underrepresented composers in the repertoire and to premiering new work by undergraduate composers. His cantata for chamber orchestra and three treble voices, Raymond, was premiered by the ensemble in the spring of 2022. The libretto was derived from the writings of Sir Oliver Lodge, a physicist and spiritualist who dedicated his life to understanding the afterlife and communicating with the dead following the death of his son, Raymond. The work documents his loss, his attempts to contact his son, and the scientific obsessions in the afterlife and ethereal matter. During his leadership, the ensemble produced over twenty new works by undergraduate composers and two virtual concerts early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also played in the Yale Symphony Orchestra as a section violist, and served as the musical director of the ensemble during its annual Halloween Show. As music director, he scored two silent films and worked with other composers to arrange music for the orchestra. Miller also found his interest in opera studies while at Yale, and studied under distinguished scholars such as Gundula Kreuzer and Patrick McCreless. He has continued this research interest in the field at the University of Michigan, where he has written a paper about the culture queer diva worship in opera under the guidance of Gabriela Cruz. 

Miller grew up in Houston, Texas where he graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In Houston, he studied viola under James Dunham from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and composition under Robert Nelson from the Moore School of Music at the University of Houston.