About this work:
Phrenology is written in a partially improvised, contrapuntally fractured, seemingly disparate but in fact, quite unified style. There are occasional references to Stephen Foster.
Jason Kao Hwang, amplified violin
David Bindman, tenor saxophone
Jennifer Baker, trombone
Andrew Drury, percussion
Live recording, Symphony Space
June 8, 2013
www.soundcloud.com/sdmillermusic
Scott D. Miller has long explored diverse genres and has written extensively for various classical ensembles. He has composed musique concrète, electroacoustic music, experimental jazz, structured improvisation and works in collaboration with poets, dramatists and visual artists. Miller's works have been performed at Symphony Space, The Knitting Factory, Roulette, P.S. 122, La Mama Galleria, Lincoln Center Library, Greenwich House and many other venues.
Miller studied composition with Milton Babbitt and Paul Lansky, as well as clarinet with David Krakauer. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Miller also 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, Meet the Composer and in 2010, he won the New York Composers Circle Competition.
On June 7, 2014, the New York Composers Circle will present "Mouth That Tears the Land" (1988), an electronic micro-opera for clarinet, organ, helicopter, air raid siren, and the voices of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon - the performance will be at the Symphony Space Thalia. Recent performances include "Phrenology: The Proper Study of Man" (2013) for amplified violin, tenor saxophone, trombone and percussion, premiered at Symphony Space in June 2013; and "Pause = Pause" (2009) for piano, premiered by Blair McMillen in April 2012.
Beginning in 1988, Miller founded and directed the Inner Ear Music Series at the Brecht Forum and at Greenwich House, producing over seventy concerts by many prominent experimental composers and improvisers.