An engaging performer and passionate educator, Andy Miller’s interests in classical percussion, non-Western percussion traditions, improvisation, composition and dance accompaniment have led to a broad range of artistic practices across a variety of disciplines. Currently, he is a lecturer of music in percussion and Latin Jazz at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he directs the Latin American Ensemble, Brazilian Percussion Ensemble, Coaches the Latin Jazz Ensemble, and teaches private and group percussion lessons.
Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Andy holds degrees in percussion performance from Indiana University (DM 2023), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (MM 2011) and Wright State University (BM 2009). He has also taught percussion at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music (Fall 2017), Olivet Nazarene University (2012-2017), and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (2014-2017). Andy has received several awards and honors including a Fulbright Grant to Colombia in 2011, the prestigious Graduate Presser Award from Indiana University in 2015, the Swanson Family Percussion Fellowship from the University of Illinois, and the Outstanding Alumni of the Year from Wright State University School of Music in 2014.
Navigating the diverse world of percussion with technical and musical precision, Andy has performed in North America, South America, and Asia, bringing a broad knowledge of the percussive arts to bear in performance, pedagogy, and research. He has been a featured percussion concerto soloist with the Indiana University Orchestra (Pataruco, Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Orchestra), the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra (The Glory and the Grandeur), and the Wright State University Wind Symphony (Gillingham: Concertino for 4 percussion and winds). He has played with orchestras throughout the Midwest (Peoria Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Champaign-Urbana Symphony) and has held residencies at many summer festivals (Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble, Troublesome Gap).
Committed to the performance of contemporary music, Andy has commissioned and premiered many new pieces for percussion and has worked with composers such as Ken Thompson, Robert Paterson, Jon Supko, Juri Seo, Vin Calianno, Rodolfo Acosta, Johann Hassler (Colombia), José Martinez, Fernando Sanchez Gooding, Rafael Llanos, Melissa Vargas Franco, Juan Camilo Vásquez, and Quinn Collins. Andy’s work as the consortium leader for Monologue IV by José Martinez was selected to be the required repertoire in the final round of the 2016 Modern Snare Drum Competition. Andy has worked with Milwaukee-based new music ensemble, Present Music, and also champions contemporary music with the percussion group, Cross//Hatch. In 2022, Cross//Hatch presented Michael Gordon’s evening-length masterwork, Timber for six amplified pieces of wood at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In the field of non-Western percussion, Andy specializes in Afro-Colombian, West African, and Afro-Brazilian folkloric music and has had the opportunity to study with and perform alongside master musicians such as Bolokada Conde (Les Percusion de Guinée), Francis Lara (Latin Grammy award-winning, Gaiteros de San Jacinto), and percussionist Michael Spiro (Wayne Wallace Quintet), and Jorge Alabê (Oba Oba). He was awarded a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to Colombia in 2011, where he studied Afro-Colombian folkloric music with Ferney “La Wey” Segura, Francis Lara, and Jorge Sepulveda. In the summer of 2015, Andy was awarded the Graduate Presser Award to continue this study of Afro-Colombian percussion, focusing on the Bullerengue genre with master Emilsen Pacheco in the small seaside town of San Juan de Urabá. Andy’s research on Brazilian Candomblé drumming with master drummer, Jorge Alabê was the topic of his doctoral project: The Language of Drumming in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé Ketu: A Method Book Based on the Improvisation Strategies and Performance Practice of Jorge Alabê.
As a dance musician, Andy has accompanied hundreds of dance classes for artists such as Kirstie Simson, Maria Gillespie, Zakiya Cornish, Alfonso Cervera, Jan Erckert, as well as for members of the Mark Morris and Trisha Brown Dance Companies. His collaborations as a composer-performer with contemporary choreographers have received performances in New York, (Gibney Dance Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church) Illinois, (Krannert Center), Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carthage College), Minnesota (St. Olaf College) and Colombia (IX Festival Santander en Escena). Andy has collaborated with choreographers including; Parijat Desai, Maria Gillespie, Daniel Burkholder, Simone Ferro, Angie Pittman, Karlies Kelley, Dani Kuepper, Brianna Johnson, Rhea Speights, Angelica Angulo Soledad, Johanna Meyer, Dan Schuchart, and Qi Wei. Andy has also taught classes and presented research at the American College Dance Association (ACDA) North-Central Regional Festival and the sixth Il Corpo nel Suono International Dance Musician Conference at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2023).
When Andy is not performing, teaching, or building drums, he enjoys hiking, cooking, and drinking coffee with his wife, harpist Erin Brooker-Miller.