Dr Cassandra Miller

Cassandra Miller is a Canadian composer of chamber and orchestral music. For the last few years, her compositions have explored the transcription of pre-existing music (0ften vocal) as a way to translate it musicality/vocality into another experience. Her present work also involves direct and personal collaboration with a wide international network of solo musicians, as well as ensembles and orchestras.

Miller has twice received the Jules-Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest honour for composition, for Bel Canto in 2011 and About Bach in 2016. Her concerto written for the cellist Charles Curtis with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was hailed as an ‘unexpected highlight of the festival.’

Her works are often written with specific performers in mind, involving their intimate participation in the creative process. Her closest collaborators in this fashion have included soprano Juliet Fraser, the Quatuor Bozzini, conductor Ilan Volkov, cellist Charles Curtis, pianist Philip Thomas, violinist Silvia Tarozzi and violinist Mira Benjamin. Pieces written expressly for them have been toured and performed across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Uruguay, the United States and Canada. Over the last 15 years she received over 25 professional commissions from soloists, ensembles and orchestras both in Canada and across Europe. Notable performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus-Minus, the late great Ensemble Kore, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Continuum Contemporary Music, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Teaching forms an important part of her artistic life, having given university lectures, private tutorials, masterclasses, and workshop-style coaching. Her teaching philosophy prioritises inclusivity and diversity, and questions canonization.

Photo by Andrew Parker