Antes del Comienzo (2013) for soprano and chamber orchestra
Text by Octavio Paz. This is a live recording of the premiere performance (Feb. 8, 2014) featuring Jacqueline Goldgorin (soprano), Magik*Magik Orchestra, and John Kennedy (conductor).

Antes del Comienzo for soprano and chamber orchestra

Commentary - for amplified water bottle and fixed media
Performed by the composer at Central Michigan University's MicroCHIP series (Nov 2013)

Commentary

A companion piece for Miniatures, Book 1. Prelude/Postlude explores the musical concepts presented in the miniatures, but in a longer format. 

This recording is a live performance. Megan McDevitt, bass 
Aug. 9, 2014 - Center for New Music, San Francisco, CA

Prelude/Postlude

A set of eight miniatures for bass. Composed in 2006 for Jenny Lebonte. This performance is by Megan McDevitt at Center for New Music in San Francisco.

Miniatures - Book 1

A work that I composed in 2007 for Eric km Clark and his Simplified Violin.  The violin is strung with only E strings tuned E 1/4 flat, E flat, E, and E.

Study #1 for Simplified Violin

Collages for amplified violin (2011) - Recorded live at Meridian Gallery in San Francisco June 24, 2011.  Performance by Eric km Clark.

Collages for amplified violin

This piece is an homage to Alfred Schnittke, a composer whose work still has a major impact on my own.This work is inspired by Schnittke’s work in general, and his piece Stille Musik specifically.
Performed by the Navitas Ensemble:  Elizabeth Choi, violin; Hannah Addario-Berry, cello.  Recorded live at Subterranean Arthouse in Berkeley, CA, Sept. 28, 2011.


Homage: duo

Tonic 1.5 is the result of several “Tonic” experiments that I did in the summer of 2010.  At the time I was playing regularly with two other friends that played guitar, and we brought in small pieces to read every week.  This laboratory was an invaluable tool for expanding my comfort zone, as I could take a chance and get instant feedback, whether it was unusual forms of notation or aleatoric structures.  Slowly but surely, the failures disappeared, leaving a series of pieces for three electric guitars.  Tonic 1.5 develops ideas that were explored in Tonics #1 and #2. The first performance was at ISSUE Project Room by the Dither Electric Guitar Quartet in 2011. This recording is Harjo: Brent Miller, Sal Barra, and Matt Vandegriff.

Tonic 1.5

Actually the 4th piece in a series of notation studies entitled Tonic. This piece was composed for Sqwonk, a bass clarinet duo featuring Jeff Anderle and Jon Russell. This recording is the premier performance at Center for New Music in San Francisco.

Tonic #3

Brent Miller (b. 1978) is a composer, performer, and arts administrator based in San Francisco, CA. Recent projects include works for Rova Saxophone Quartet, violinist Eric km Clark (Southland Ensemble, EAR Unit), Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, and Sqwonk. He has received grants from Zellerbach Family Foundation and American Composers Forum to fund his work. He studied composition at the University of Arkansas with Robert Mueller and University of Missouri-Kansas City with James Mobberley and Paul Rudy.
 
Brent is active in the arts administration field founding and serving as Managing Director for The Center for New Music in San Francisco, a work/performance space that supports creative music, as well as managing Rova:Arts, a non-profit organization that supports Rova Saxophone Quartet. He also has worked with Other Minds, helping to produce the annual Other Minds Festival, and is a founding member of The Collected, a group dedicated to the advancement of new music.
 

Brent Miller

Popular tracks