Miller, Cassandra

Born 1976, Canadian composer living in London. In 2012, she studied privately with Michael Finnissy, who continues to have a deep effect on her work. She holds a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague (2008, Richard Ayres, Yannis Kyriakides). She also holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria (2005), where she studied with Christopher Butterfield. From 2010 to 2013, she held the post of Artistic and General Director of Innovations en Concert, a not-for-pro t presenter of experimental chamber music concerts and festivals in Montreal. 

After two decades working in the field, Miller returned to academic research in 2014. Her doctoral research at the University of Huddersfield (supervisor Bryn Harrison, 2018) explored transcription and other transformation methods as compositional processes, and compositional engagements with varied notions of voice and vocality. Previously, she taught composition modules at the University of Huddersfield (2014–16) and the University of Victoria (2008–9). She has been invited to give lectures about her work in the United States at Stanford and Columbia Universities; in the UK at the Royal Academy of Music, Bath Spa University Centre for Musical Research, Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music and Drama; in Canada at McGill University. She has additionally taught masterclasses and workshops at the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting and many academies in North America. She has held a faculty position at Guildhall since September 2018, when she was made Associate Head of Composition (Undergraduate). 

Her honours include the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest recognition for composition, which she received twice: for Bel Canto in 2011 and About Bach in 2016. In 2019, About Bach received a nomination for the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award. Festivals and venues featuring her music have included Tectonics Glasgow, Huddersfield, Only Connect Oslo, Ostrava Days, World Music Days (Ljubljana), Transit (Leuven), Music on Main (Vancouver), and Núcleo Música Nueva de Montevideo, among many others. In 2015, the AngelicA Festival of Bologna presented three concerts featuring her work. Notable performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus Minus, the late great Ensemble Kore, Continuum Contemporary Music, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. 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 Bozzini Quartet, conductor Ilan Volkov, cellist Charles Curtis, pianist Philip Thomas, violinists Silvia Tarozzi and Mira Benjamin. Pieces written expressly for them have been toured and performed across the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Uruguay, the United States and Canada. 

Selected works: Orfeo for ensemble (2006), O Zomer! for ensemble (2007), A Large House for orchestra (2009), Bel Canto for mezzo-soprano and ensemble (2010), Leaving for string quartet (2011), Warblework for string quartet (2011), Philip the Wanderer for piano (2012), For Mirafor violin (2012), Guide for vocal ensemble (2013), Duet for cello and orchestra (2015), About Bach for string quartet (2015), Traveller Song for ensemble and electronics (2017), Round for orchestra (2017), Tracery for voice and tape (with Juliet Fraser, 2017–18), Just So for string quartet (2008–18).