Yiannis Miralis is Associate Professor of Music Education and Saxophone and Coordinator of the Music Program at the Department of Arts at European University Cyprus. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (PhD), Bowling Green State University (MM), and Lawrence University (BM), where he was a Fulbright scholar. His primary saxophone teachers were Joe Lulloff, John Sampen, and Steven Jordheim, respectively.
As the first Cypriot classical saxophonist, Miralis has given numerous solo and chamber performances in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Sweden, and the USA. He was the first saxophone soloist with the Cyprus State Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Ayis Ioannides. He later performed with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Spiros Pisinos, Miltos Logiades, and Sasha Mäkilä. He also appeared as soloist with the Macedonian Saxophone Quartet and the Ensemble Philharmonia. He was a member of the Macedonian Saxophone Quartet which performed at the Cultural Olympiad of Athens 2004 and on a five-concert tour of Switzerland with the Orchestre de Chambre de Neuchâtel. As a member of the acclaimed Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet (TSQ) he won a number of chamber music competitions in the USA. The Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet has given hundreds of performances in the USA and Europe. They have also performed at the renowned Ravenna Music Festival in Italy and appeared as soloists with the Royal Belgian Air Force Band in Minneapolis. Their first CD, “Mountain Roads,” (Albany Records) received outstanding reviews.
Miralis has a genuine interest in expanding the saxophone repertoire and has commissioned numerous saxophone works by such composers as J. Harbison, B. Rands, D. Maslanka, L. Bell, R. Borel, Ph. Dymiotis, G. Karvellos, C. Stylianou, H. Sofocleous, D. Constantinides, and C. Papageorgiou. He has given world premieres of a number of these works in the United States and Cyprus.
Yiannis has taught at the University of Cyprus, ARTE Music Academy, University of Windsor in Canada, Flint Institute of Music, and Michigan State University Community Music School. From 2001-2004 he served as Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Music Education at the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. He is a founding member of the Hellenic Saxophone Association (HSA) and president of the Cypriot Saxophone Association Saxophonia.
