Scott D. Miller has studied composition with Milton Babbitt and Paul Lansky, as well as clarinet with David Krakauer.  A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Miller also has earned an MFA in composition from Princeton University and an MA in music education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He has received numerous awards and grants including ASCAP, NJSCA and Meet the Composer. His quintet, Polychrome Stride, has won the 2010 New York Composers Circle Competition and will be premiered at Symphony Space in June 2011.

Miller has written for various classical ensembles and has long explored diverse genres. He has composed musique concrète, computer-generated sound, incidental music/sound effects for theater, structured improvisation, jazz and works in collaboration with poets, dramatists and visual artists.  His works include: Home Cookin’, a collaborative installation at Columbia University (1982); Assassination of Angels, an  electronic micro-opera for voice, piano, percussion and manipulated motorcycle (1986); Mouth That Tears The Land, an electronic micro-opera for clarinet, organ, helicopter and the voices of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon (1988); Breathing President, for voice, clarinet and live electronics (1992); Canyon of Heroes, commissioned by the New York University New Music Ensemble (1994); music for Bottoms Out, an experimental jazz octet co-led by Miller and bassist Joe Fonda (Cadence Records release 1998); music for Form Feeders, an improvisational trio with composers Kevin Norton and Jeffery Schanzer; Hard Synopsis (1999) and Abaft the Beam (2000) for clarinet, guitar and vibraphone; Acrobat (2005) for trumpet, violin, cello, piano and percussion; No Second Troy (2006) and Screed (2007) for piano quartet; Volume The First (2007) for string quartet; Polychrome Stride (2009) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano; and Game with Sharp Knives (2009) for clarinet and violin.  Recent recordings include: Pause = Pause (2008) for piano, performed by Eric Huebner and Clarinet Primer (2008) for solo clarinet performed by Meighan Stoops.

Miller’s works have been performed at The Knitting Factory, Roulette, P.S. 122, CBGB’s Gallery, La Mama Galleria, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Greenwich House, New York University, Wesleyan University, St. Peter’s Church and Lincoln Center Library.  In addition, Miller founded and directed the Inner Ear Music Series at the Brecht Forum and at Greenwich House, producing over seventy concerts of new music by artists including Don Byron, Anthony Coleman, Fred Frith, Fred Ho, John King and many others.  Miller has been active as a music educator, teaching band in public schools in both Brooklyn and New Jersey.  He currently resides and teaches instrumental music in Manhattan.