About Me | lauramiller

B i o g r a p h y

American bassoonist Laura Miller enjoys performing, traveling, and sharing her love of music through teaching. She has performed around the world as soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Before moving to Europe in 2015, Laura traveled throughout North America to present concerts and classes with the contemporary award-winning woodwind quintet, The City of Tomorrow. She also performed as principal bassoonist in several Texas symphony orchestras, including the San Antonio Symphony, Mid-Texas Symphony, and Corpus Christi Symphony. In 2011 Laura helped found an early music ensemble in central Texas, known now as the Austin Baroque Orchestra, which performs solely on historical instrument replicas. From 2008 until departing for Europe, Laura maintained an active bassoon studio comprised of around 20 young bassoonists.

Laura was a featured "Emerging Artist" at the 2012 Victoria Bach Festival, and finalist in the 2012 Gillet-Fox and 2010 Meg-Quigley Vivaldi Competitions. She soloed with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, after winning the 2011 Asian Double Reed Association Competition held near Bangkok. In 2014 Laura was the only American bassoonist to qualify for the 2nd Antonov International Competition for Woodwind Performers—which was to be held February 2014 in Kiev but cancelled due to political unrest.

Laura studied with and served as Teaching Assistant to Kristin Wolfe Jensen at the University of Texas, and studied with Michael Ellert while attending Dreyfoos School of the Arts in Florida. From 2015-17 she studied historical bassoons at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München under Katrin Lazar and Lyndon Watts. Although she was accepted into Juilliard's historical performance practice in New York Fall 2017, she moved back to Italy to be with her husband and continue her career in Europe. She has performed professionally with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra, Saxony Baroque Orchestra, Baroque Trumpet Ensemble Berlin and Munich-based ensembles Concerto München, Accademia di Monaco, Munich Baroque, Concerto de Bassus, the Prague-based orchestra Barockorchester Collegium Marianum, as well as in Austria with Paluselli Consort Stams and Kontra.Punkt Barockorchester, and in Italy with Ensemble Conductus, Accademia del Santo Spirito, and Ensemble Cordia.

More about The City of Tomorrow...

In July 2012 Laura joined the award-winning woodwind quintet, the City of Tomorrow, an entirely self-manged ensemble. During her three years with the all-star ensemble, they toured throughout the USA and Canada. Her first season included performances in 17 cities in nine states and their Canadian debut. The group can be seen performing in a range of venues, from churches and university concert halls, to art galleries, bars and even rock venues. Over the years the quintet appeared on several live radio broadcasts, as well as on The Late Now Talk Show, and at the Mayo Clinic where their performance aired on televisions throughout the hospital. In May 2015 the quintet released their first CD, titled Nature, on the RAVELLO label. With a heavy heart, Laura resigned from the quintet in order to pursue historical bassoon studies in Europe.

More about Historical Studies...
Inspired from her first early music experiences in the University of Texas Early Music Ensemble, Laura helped found the Austin Baroque Orchestra in 2011, now in their tenth season. She studied baroque bassoon in Italy with Elena Bianchi at the 2015 Urbino Musica Antica and the 2011 Early Music Summer Academy in Fossacesia. While living in Germany, in 2016 she worked with Javier Zafra at the Freiburg Akademie, and Christian Beuse on baroque bassoon at the Bremen Winter Akademie and classical bassoon at the Schwetzinger Hofmusik Akademie. That year she also participated in the Düsseldorfer Hofmusik Akademie and the Akademie für Alte Musik in Bruneck. In the summer of 2017, she flew to San Francisco to attend the American Bach Soloists Academy. On dulcian she attended the 2014 Texas Early Music Festival and studied with Wouter Verschuren at the 2016 Utrecht Historical Intro Course in the Netherlands.

A sought after teacher...

Laura has taught students ranging in age from middle school to college-level and beyond. For seven years she maintained a large and successful studio in Pflugerville, TX. Click here to read more, or here to hear student performances. Laura has also taught masterclasses at universities and conservatories across the USA, including most recently Illinois State University, University of Memphis, and Berklee College of Music. During the summer, Laura has been on faculty at the Bocal Majority Bassoon Camp (2012, 2014) and the Longhorn Music Camp (2010, 2012-14). Laura truly enjoys teaching and working with others; she hopes to once again build a studio and share her love of music through teaching.