Darren Miller
young composer from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

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Darren Miller was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he began piano lessons at a relatively young age. Impatient with the difficulties involved in learning western art music, Darren instead turned to the punk and underground music scenes of Saskatoon. Ventures in this realm afforded him the chance to travel across Canada for the first time, and resulted in several months spent living in a van with three of his best friends. Upon his return to Saskatchewan, a music appreciation class with Joan Halmo awoke in Darren a desire to pursue music seriously. Having forgotten any earlier musical training, Darren began from scratch with strict practice and study regimens under Saskatoon pianist Martin Janovsky. In the fall of 2001, Darren was accepted to the theory and composition program at the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained a B.Mus. with great distinction in the spring of 2005. While at the University of Saskatchewan, Darren had the chance to study with Bonnie Nicholson, Walter Kreyszig, David Kaplan, Elizabeth Sayrs, and Gyula Csapo.          Between 2006 and 2008 Darren completed his M.Mus. in composition at the University of Victoria under Michael Longton, Christopher Butterfield, Andrew Schloss, Jonathan Goldman, Daniel Peter Biro, John Celona, and Harald Krebs, among others.          In the summer of 2008 Darren left Canada for the first time to present his newly composed string quartet at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. The following fall and winter were spent composing, programming, studying, and performing at the Banff Centre, where Darren also organized and directed the 2009 Banff Centre International Young Composers Forum.          Darren has been lucky enough to receive composition lessons from distinguished international composers such as: Louis Andriessen, Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm, Marco Stroppa, Klaus Lang, Mark Applebaum, Vykintas Baltakas, Manos Tsangaris, Tom Lopez, Lewis Nielson, Harvey Sollberger, and Jerome Kitzke.          Though a relative newcomer to the world of composition, his works have already been performed or read by: The Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (2006), Susu Robin (2006), The Turning Point Ensemble (2007), Aventa (2007), The Quatuor Bozzini (2007 and 2008), The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2008), The New York Miniaturist Ensemble (2008), as well as countless student ensembles.          Darren began a PhD under Cort Lippe at the State University of New York in Buffalo, before transferring to the PhD program at the University of Victoria. While focusing mainly on his compositional studies with Dr. Daniel Peter Biro, Darren is also pursuing opportunities off campus as a pianist, performer of computer music, conductor, and composer. Upcoming performances and collaborations are scheduled with pianist Luciane Cardassi, the Quatuor Bozzini, a robotic percussion array, recorder and electronics duo Terri Hron and Juan Parra, visual artist Lindsay Royale, and the In Extensio trio of Montreal.