L.A. Phil's James Miller to perform with La Sierra Wind Ensemble

About the Guest Artist

JAMES MILLER is the Associate Principal Trombone with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a position he has held since 1999. His duties include performing on alto, tenor, and bass trombone; tenor tuba; and bass trumpet. His previous orchestral experience includes the North Carolina Symphony, the Long Island Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. Miller earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Per Brevig.

His playing experience includes performances with the Silk Road Ensemble, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Ensemble ST-X, the Michael Bublé Big Band, and a variety of jazz, rock, ska, and Latin ensembles. He has been a participant in the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Ojai Music Festival as well as performing as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series. As a composer, he has had world premieres in New York’s Lincoln Center and continues to perform his own works in solo performances throughout the country. He serves on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts (CIA) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Miller is a Conn/Selmer and a Denis Wick clinician and has two CDs entitled from coast to coast and Delays, delays on All Barks Dog records.

About the Conductor

DEAN ANDERSON has lived and worked as a music director and conductor throughout southern California for over a decade. He is currently in his fourth season as the Music Director for the Dana Point Symphony and in his third season as the Artistic Director for Symphony Irvine. Additionally, he holds a faculty position at La Sierra University as the Director of Orchestral Studies. He is frequently engaged as an orchestra clinician and has worked with youth ensembles from across the United States. He has been invited to guest conduct on numerous occasions and has led the Grumo Festival Orchestra (Grumo, Italy), Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, Siam Sinfonietta (Bangkok, Thailand),Yakima Chamber Orchestra, Cerritos College Orchestra, and the Montage Civic Orchestra. He was invited to guest conduct the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony in Vietnam and was the first American ever to conduct the orchestra professionally in Ho Chi Minh City. He also recently gave his debut performance in Nagoya, Japan with international pipa artist, Tu Shan Xiang and the famed erhu performer, George Gao.

As a collaborative artist, he has participated in projects with the Chance Theater, Nouveau Chamber Ballet, and the Anaheim Ballet. He conducted the recording session at Capitol Records of music by Kostas Christides and Minos Matsas for the full-length documentary on the life and work of Stan Lee entitled With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010). He completed music directing a tour of an original opera - Il Pianista Disgraziata - with performances in Bologna, Assisi, Binetto, Loro Piceno, and Toritto. Other opera performances include Il Segreto di Susanna with the UCLA Opera Department and Gianni Schicchi with the Fullerton College Opera Workshop.

Mr. Anderson studied violin and conducting at the University of Missouri – Columbia, where he studied with John McLeod and Edward Dolbashian respectively. He has also participated in conducting master classes with such prominent teachers as Gustav Meier, Mark Gibson, Marin Alsop, Mihail Agafita, Daron Hagen, Don Thulean, Neal Stulberg and Lawrence Golan. He is currently completing a DMA degree in Orchestral Conducting at UCLA.