Featured Collaborator: Brent Miller
Brent Miller (Australia) has an international profile as a Timpanist and Percussionist with ensembles including the Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, Malaysian Philharmonic, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Singapore Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Camerata, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Southern Cross Soloists, Queensland Virtuosi, Camerata of St John's, Philharmonia Australia and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and conducting engagements with Ensemble Ardor and Camerata of St John's.
Through his freelance engagements, Brent has had the privilege of performing alongside artists such as Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Diana Krall, Tim Minchin, Lang Lang, Sinead O’Conner, Kate Ceberano, The Wiggles, Anthony Callea, Katie Noonan, Kate Miller-Heidke, Gurrumul Yunupingu, and conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Edo de Waart, Tan Dun and Michael Tilson Thomas.
As an educator, Brent is an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) and frequently frequently in demand for tutoring, workshops and masterclasses. He has given masterclasses at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Queensland, several school workshops and professional development sessions around Australia, and has been a long serving tutor for the Queensland Youth Orchestras.
Brent studied a Bachelor of Music in Advanced Performance with Tom O’Kelly and Vanessa Tomlinson at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University. He graduated with First Class Honours and was awarded the University Medal. He is currently completing a Master of Music Research at the same institution.
Brent is passionate about expressing the musical capabilities of percussion instruments to the fullest degree through orchestral, chamber, solo and concerto performances.
In 2008, Brent was the winner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Snare Drum Award and recorded the test piece for the competition (Clockwork Lemon by Stuart Greenbaum) with Rhythmscape Publishing Australia. In 2010, he was timpanist for the Australian Youth Orchestra’s International Tour to Europe and China including performances of Shostakovich's 10th Symphony at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. In 2011, he was chosen as the Timpanist with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra - one of four Australians to join 101 Musicians from 33 countries for a week that culminated in a concert at the Sydney Opera House conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2012, he was timpanist of the World Youth Orchestra in 2012 with concert seasons in Italy. In 2016, he was Project Coordinator for the Australian Percussion Gathering.
Current interests include being involved with the commissioning of groundbreaking new works for solo timpani; most recently Chris Healey's 'Myths' (2012), Phil Treloar's 'Sudhana's Steps' (2013), Callum Kennedy's 'It's a Beautiful World' & 'Fractured Bits', Dr. Stephen Cronin's Artefacts (2016) plus over 100 other solo timpani compositions that have been written for Brent this year by composers from around the world.