Cassandra Miller, composer

Contact me:
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You can e-mail me here


Material for download:
Composition C.V.
List of Works
Biography in French and English


I am new in Montreal and currently looking for work!
Please spread the word and feel free to have a look at my employment résumé.



Upcoming events:
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August 29, 2009: A Large House for string orchestra premiered by the Janacek Philharmonic at the Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic

February 13, 2010: open workshop session with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal + Generation project, alongside performance of "O Zomer!"

May 14, 2010: Bel Canto for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble, premiered by Ensemble Kore with Marie-Annick Béliveau, Montréal

June 2010: baroque trumpet concerto performed by Nicholas Emmerson in the Netherlands

Summer 2010 (date TBA): The Community Sinfonia Project, Victoria

October 2010: Metal Games performance of a new work for Zinc & Copper Works, Berlin

November 2010: cross country tour with the ECM+ Generation project, Canada



Score examples:
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A Large House String Orchestra and Percussion, performed at the Ostrava Days Festival last summer. Here are the first 4 pages or so. I've included only a short excerpt of this half-hour piece in the music player on the sidebar to the left. If you would like to listen to the full piece, you can do so by clicking here.

Turn Cello solo full score

Orfeo 2nd movement

"O Zomer!" an excerpt



Biography:
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In her work, Cassandra seeks after the complexity of emotion that can arise from simplicity, and combines her desire for the absurd with a love for mathematical elegance and extremes of emotional/aesthetic experience. Among her influences she counts the music of Martin Arnold, Thomas Stiegler, Felix Profos, Taylan Susam, Aldo Clementi, Bernhard Lang, Rudolf Komorous.

Cassandra holds a M.Mus. from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, where she studied with Richard Ayres. Previously as an undergraduate, she studied at the University of Victoria, where she acquired an appreciation for the strangest things in life (and art) from Christopher Butterfield. She grew up in a rural area outside Victoria B.C. Canada, and has spent most of her life as a concert harpist.

This past year she lived in Victoria, dividing her time between composing and teaching at the University of Victoria. Her students remain the best teachers she's had. She moved Montreal in September.

Her orchestral work has been performed by
- the Janacek Philharmonic (Czech Republic)
- - the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and
- - - the Victoria Symphony;
and new works have been commissioned by
- Ensemble Kore (Montreal) *
- - Zinc & Copper Works (Berlin) *
- - - Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto) *
- - - - RedShift (Vancouver, in collaboration with the Vancouver Cantata Singers and I Tromboni) *
- - - - - Vancouver New Music (broadcast on the CBC)
- - - - - - Nicholas Emmerson (the Netherlands).
Previously as a student, her works were premiered in workshops with
- the Quatuor Bozzini (Montreal)
- - the Asko Ensemble (Amsterdam)
- - - the orkest 'de ereprijs' (Apeldoorn)
- - - - Aventa New Music (Victoria)
- - - - - ArrayMusic (Toronto),
among others.

Projects for the upcoming year include a concert with Ensemble Kore (Montreal), the ECM+ Generation Project (Montreal), a baroque trumpet concerto to be premiered by Nicholas Emmerson (the Netherlands), and a piece to be performed by the unusual brass trio Zinc & Copper Works (Berlin).

Cassandra is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

(* commissioned with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts)