Interview With Lisa Miller - Part 1

Who: Lisa Miller

Interviewer: Tommy Babin

“If the new improvisational movement means to convey the spirit of jazz without reiterating its stylistic clichés, then Vancouver-based pianist Lisa Miller deserves to be considered one of its leading lights.” J.D. Considine, The Globe and Mail

Miller’s performance style combines her interest in varied disciplines - modern classical composition, jazz and free improvisation - in vibrant and challenging pieces, using the improvisatory talents of the members of her ensembles and her knowledge of contemporary practices. Her CD, The music of lisa miller Q, featuring Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff and Steve Smith, is available in Canada through Festival Distribution and in Europe through No Man’s Land. The recording has received rave reviews in Downbeat, The Paris Transatlantic Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette (voted 13 of top 20 jazz albums of the year) and Signal to Noise. Her piano trio has recorded for CBC broadcast on Hot Air and Jazz Beat. She performs with the NOW Orchestra, ion zoo, stop time and in her ensembles Q, lm trio, edgeffect, and green ideas. 

Lisa Miller’s compositions have been premiered by The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The Left Coast Ensemble and Ear play in San Francisco, Standing Wave, The Turning Point Ensemble, The Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society, Q and Edgeffect (with Ron Samworth, Jeremy Berkman and Jesse Zubot) in Vancouver. Miller completed a Doctorate in music composition at the University of British Columbia. She studied composition at San Francisco State University, McGill University and the University of Calgary and jazz piano in New York City.