Classical Music: Sunday concert marks homecoming for Ann Miller

By Anthony Sclafani
Posted 4/07/11

When violinist Ann Miller returns to Howard County to perform in a Sundays at Three program this weekend, it will be more than a homecoming. The concert will also mark her coming full circle as a classical musician.

The Clarksville resident pursued much of her musical education locally -- indeed, she once regularly attended the very concert series at which she'll be performing Sunday.

"I went to the Sundays at Three concert series as I was growing up," says Miller, who now lives in California. "My parents still go to the concert series, and I always really enjoyed going. So for me it's really exciting to be coming back and playing."

Miller will be performing as one third of the New Pacific Trio, the resident chamber ensemble at the University of the Pacific's Conservatory, where Miller now teaches. The group, which is known for its embrace of contemporary composers, happened to need a violinist when Miller was hired at the school two and a half years ago.

"The trio has been around for almost 10 years," Miller explains. "Playing with the trio came as part of my job description. I was going to be part of the trio if I was hired for the teaching position, so basically I took the place of the former violinist once that violinist left."

Miller was hired after receiving both her master's and doctorate degrees from New York's Juilliard School. It was also while at Juilliard that she made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall as a soloist with the New Juilliard Ensemble.

She has performed as far away as Switzerland under the direction of legendary conductor and composer Pierre Boulez (who also collaborated with Baltimore-born Frank Zappa in the 1980s).

Not to be overlooked in her resume, though, is the fact that she began her career as a musician in Howard County. She was enrolled at age 4 in Suzuki violin lessons by her mother, who is also a musician. She then went on to play in the student orchestras at Clarksville Elementary School, Clarksville Middle School and Atholton High School.

After attending Atholton for a year, she transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts to concentrate more fully on her musical studies.

Miller was also part of the county's Gifted and Talented Orchestra, in which she says simply that she "learned a lot. It was very helpful." The Howard County area's location, she says, always made it an ideal region for fledgling musicians.

"My parents were able to take me for lessons in D.C. for a while, and then later, while I was studying in Baltimore, they took me for lessons there. I was also able to hear concerts in those cities as well.

"I think the area is very rich culturally, and I think that that really helped me grow as a musician."

Sundays at Three concert-goers will get to see the grown-up Miller when she performs four chamber works along with her fellow New Pacific musicians, Sonia Leong on piano and Nina Flyer on cello.

The concert will feature two older works in Joseph Haydn's Trio in D Major, Hob. XV: 7 and Johannes Brahms' Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87, plus two other contemporary compositions by Charles Ives and Astor Piazzolla.

"The Ives isn't new at this point," Miller explains. "But at the same time, it has elements that sound like it could have been composed recently. We've performed it before, and we really enjoy playing it each time we do it.

"Often times people think of Ives and they think of a lot of dissonance and unpleasant music," Miller continues. "What we've found is that a lot of audiences who have heard it really love it because Ives quotes a lot of well-known hymns and popular songs and people can listen for those in the piece. I think it helps you connect to it."

The New Pacific Trio is heavily associated with new music, having received a Barlow Grant in 2006 that allowed it to commission composer Chen Yi's first piano trio, "Tibetan Tunes." The trio has also premiered and recorded works by other contemporary composers and performed as part of the Composers, Inc. series in San Francisco.

"We like to include a wide variety of music in our concerts because we also love playing Beethoven and Brahms," says Miller.

When Sunday rolls around, it won't just be the area's chamber music aficionados who will get to see Miller tackle the classics. She'll also be joined by her two biggest fans, her mother and father, Letitia and Eugene Miller.

"In January, they moved from Clarksville to a home in Columbia that is only five miles or so from where I grew up," she explains.

The New Pacific Trio performs in the Sundays at Three series Sunday, April 10, 3 p.m., in Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, located at 6800 Oakland Mills Road, opposite Dobbin Road. Admission is $15. Anyone age 17 and younger will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Go to www.SundaysAtThree.org or call 410-992-0145