Dr. Joe Miller Is New Director of Choral Activities
Dr. Joe Miller has been appointed Director of Choral Activities at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, beginning July 1, 2006.
Miller is currently Director of Choral Studies, Professor of Music and Voice Area Chair at Western Michigan University’s School of Music. His previous positions include serving as Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at California State University, Stanislaus from 1994 to 1999, Artistic Director/Conductor of the Stockton Chorale, and Music Director of the Mother Lode Music Festival. He has conducted his choirs in both national and international festivals, and he has served as guest conductor for numerous honors choirs. In addition, he has served as music director at churches in Ohio and Tennessee. He has performed as a solo artist throughout the Midwest and in California, most recently with the Grand Rapids Symphony in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass.
Joe Miller earned a Master degree and DMA in choral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and voice from the University of Tennessee.
“This appointment is the culmination of an extensive international search,” says Westminster Dean Robert Annis. “He is an outstanding musician with a deep respect for Westminster’s traditions and the energy and imagination to carry that tradition forward. He joins an incomparable line of exceptional conductors, beginning with John Finley Williamson and continuing through Joseph Flummerfelt, who have made Westminster what it is today.”
“It is an honor to be part of the character and community of Westminster,” says Miller. “I am inspired by the students and faculty, and I look forward to being a catalyst as we form a new vision based on the principles of Westminster’s rich tradition.”
Founded by John Finley Williamson in 1926 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio, Westminster Choir College moved to Princeton, N.J. in 1932. It merged with Rider University in 1992. At Westminster’s core is a four-year music college and graduate school that prepares musicians for careers in schools, universities, churches and as performers.
The college has eight major choirs, including the 150-voice Westminster Symphonic Choir, which has performed and recorded with virtually all of the major orchestras and conductors of our time, and the 40-voice Westminster Choir, which is the chorus-in-residence at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C.
Joe Miller succeeds Joseph Flummerfelt, who served as Westminster’s director of choral activities from 1970 until his retirement in 2004.
