Anton Miller, assistant professor of music, admits a touch of bias but remains convinced that no other instrument allows for the kind of self-expression that the violin does. The son of an Oberlin College voice professor, Miller took up the instrument at the age of four and began his violin teaching career as a 19-year-old undergraduate at Indiana University. He established a studio in New York City while completing his master's degree at The Juilliard School and later taught at Swarthmore and Oberlin Colleges before joining the Lawrence Conservatory faculty in 2000.
His teaching philosophy emphasizes a mastery of the technical skills for musical expression and an understanding of the delicate relationship between technique and repertoire performance.
This past year, Miller's active performance schedule took him and his favorite means of self-expression -- a 222-year old, $140,000 Nicolo Gagliano violin -- to stages near, far, and even "forbidden." He twice performed in Madison with the Lawrence Chamber Players in the "Live from the Elvehjem" series on Wisconsin Public Radio. In March, he was the featured soloist in performances with the Westfield Symphony in New Jersey, the Corpus Christi Symphony in Texas, and the Deerfield Beach Symphony Orchestra in Florida. He also served on the violin faculty for the Aria International Music Academy in London, Ontario, and for the fourth consecutive year, co-directed, as well as taught at, the Silver Bay Summer Music Festival in Connecticut.
Highlighting the year was a February trip to Beijing, China, with conservatory colleagues Janet Anthony, Matthew Michelic, Stéphane Tran Ngoc, and Fan Lei for a performance as part of the Imperial Concert Series at the new Forbidden City Concert Hall. With the support of the recent $1.5 million Freeman Foundation grant, six conservatory students were able to accompany the musicians. Miller, who was performing in Beijing for the fourth time in his career, called the presence of the students "one of the best things" about the trip. "To be able to acknowledge them in the audience before a sold-out concert hall was fantastic."