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Timothy Lee Miller

Composer of big band jazz and classical chamber music!

About Me

TIMOTHY LEE MILLER is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, and publisher writing contemporary concert music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, wind ensemble, and voice, as well as jazz music for big bands and small combos. He has also written for several small films, television projects, and video games. He has earned degrees from the University of Tennessee (BS Music Ed, 1984), the University of Miami (MM Media Writing and Production, 1990) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA Composition, 2013). His principal composition teachers have been John Anthony Lennon, James Progris, Tamar Diesendruck, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Andy Jaffe, John Fitz Rogers, and Roger Zahab. He has received numerous commissions and awards, including several ASCAP awards. His works have been performed throughout the US, Europe, Russia, and China. His music is recorded on ERMMedia, Ansonica, Navona, and Phoenix Classics.

In November 2015, Miller was part of the PARMA Recordings venture to Havana, Cuba to record several jazz works with musicians in Havana under the People to People humanitarian program. Two of his big band jazz pieces, Hot Miami Nights and On An Autumn Day, were recorded and released on the two-disc set ABRAZO: The Havana Sessions alongside music by the other seven composers. The CD to date has received worldwide critical acclaim and was in consideration for a Grammy nomination.

In March 2018, Miller released SOMETHING MORE, eight original jazz compositions that explore the unique relationships that the composer has with his family. Expanding upon something as simple as a photograph or a memory, Miller's noir- influenced jazz expands his reflections beyond words and instead creates a story through moods. The album features both contemporary compositions, as late as 2017, as well as some that Miller had written back in the 1980s. Each track was inspired by snapshots in Miller's life, a soundtrack to a particular date in time with one of Miller's family members. The bustling, sweeping opener “Sebastian's Day Off” took its tempo from a day Miller spent in the park with his son. The composition makes quick jumps from energetic bebop to smooth lounge to bouncy jazz, providing readers with the breakneck direction changes that come with entertaining a small child. Meanwhile, the more solemn “Inky and Marie” carries a ghostly feel in its opening chords, alluding to the sorrow Miller felt when his Aunt Marie's dog Inky passed away one night during a visit. Like a photo album set to sound, Miller’s compositions lets the listener into some of his most cherished memories. SOMETHING MORE shares the thought that behind every memory, there is a story, and behind every story, there is music. The CD is available on the Ansonica label from PARMA Recordings.

Miller is currently serving as the Webmaster of the New York Composers Circle, as well as the Editor of its In The Loop online news blog.

My Jazz Story

First introduced to jazz in college when I got to play in Jerry Coker's big band - I was hooked! Wrote my first arrangements while teaching high school. Wrote my first original big band chart while in grad school at the University of Miami. Although my main focus is classical chamber and orchestral music, nothing gets my blood boiling like a hot big band chart ala Gordon Goodwin, Joe Henderson, Buddy Rich, or the Duke!!

My House Concert Story

I hosted a jazz concert on my back patio one summer — piano-vocal duet — but I would love to host big band and combo concerts. It's big enough back there and you can even watch from the tree house that's connected by a swinging bridge!!