{"id":18,"date":"2019-02-26T23:21:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T23:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:49:27","slug":"rj-miller-bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/","title":{"rendered":"RJ Miller Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"RJ<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An internationally touted master of orchestration and author of\u00a0Contemporary Orchestration:\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(Routledge Publishing\/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014), RJ Miller has enjoyed a richly diverse musical career. He has composed, orchestrated, conducted, and produced contemporary classical recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic Orchestra; produced critically acclaimed CDs by Placido Domingo, Jos\u00e9 Carreras, Russian violin virtuoso Grigori Sedukh, the Moscow String Quartet, and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Hutchins Violin Octet; served as executive producer and mastering producer on the Grammy\u00ae<\/sup> Nominated CD\u00a0How Great Thou Art<\/strong> by country music superstar, Willie Nelson; composed\/orchestrated the score to the Emmy\u00ae<\/sup> Nominated Sports Program Flight of the Dream Team<\/strong>, and composed\/orchestrated\/produced the score to the Annie Award\u00ae<\/sup> Winning \u00a0Winsor McCay: Animation Legend<\/strong> (ASIFA); arranged, orchestrated, produced & performed on dozens of jazz, classical, and new age CDs that have reached the Billboard Magazine Top 20<\/strong>; orchestrated\/conducted multiple (Grammy nominated) CDs and TV scores for multi-Grammy Award-winning pianist, Peter Kater<\/strong>; composed, orchestrated and produced film scores for the digital re-releases of the original\u00a0The Last of the Mohicans<\/strong>\u00a0(National Film Preservation Board\u00ae<\/sup> Award\/VSDA\u00ae<\/sup> Gold Award Nominee),\u00a0The Birth of a Nation<\/strong>\u00a0(VSDA\u00ae<\/sup> Gold Award Winner\/National Film Preservation Board\u00ae<\/sup> Award),\u00a0The Birth of a Race<\/strong>\u00a0(VSDA\u00ae<\/sup> Gold Award Winner\/National Film Preservation Board\u00ae<\/sup> Award),\u00a0The Lost World<\/strong>\u00a0(National Film Preservation Board\u00ae<\/sup> Award\/ASIFA Annie Award\u00ae<\/sup> Nominee),\u00a0Felix the Cat<\/strong>\u00a0(VSDA\u00ae<\/sup> Gold Award Nominee\/ASIFA Annie Award\u00ae<\/sup> Nominee); orchestrated and conducted documentary, movie and sports soundtracks for television which have aired on the History Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, TCM, NBC, ABC, AMC, National Geographic Explorer, ESPN, the Warren Miller Network; served as the orchestrator\/conductor on the international broadcasts of the 1999 World Cup Ski Championships and the 2002 Winter Olympics (both with the Utah Symphony); orchestrated five Broadway plays, including the Tony nominated Burn This<\/strong>\u00a0(directed by and starring John Malkovich). A portion of his score to the digital reissue of the original\u00a0The Lost World<\/strong>\u00a0appears in the documentary\u00a0The Making of Jurassic Park<\/strong>\u00a0(hosted by James Earl Jones and distributed worldwide by MCA\/Universal. Pictures).<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to his orchestration text, RJ is the author of\u00a0Clock Master: A Comprehensive Manual for Synchronizing Musical Compositions to Film and Video<\/strong>, and\u00a0The Notation Translation Manual<\/strong>\u00a0(a technical reference manual for recording engineers), A Survey of Classical Music <\/strong>(from the Medieval Period to the 21st Century), Basic Music Technology<\/strong> (an online course manual for The Metropolitan State University of Denver \u2013 covering music software technologies, MIDI, samples, DAW, digital audio\/video editing, microphones and signal flow, graphics, copyrights\/Licensing, and music-oriented website design), Arranging and Orchestration\u00a0<\/strong>(supplemental materials for the Arranging and Orchestration class, including an extensive\u00a0Percussion Rudiments<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0DVD for composition students at The Metropolitan State University of Denver), and has an additional book\u00a0(Arranging for Music Educators<\/strong>) in the editing phase of pre-production.<\/span><\/p>\n

RJ has been awarded a Lifetime Membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences<\/strong> (the Grammys\u00ae<\/sup>) for his “countless hours in the studio, on tour, shaping the careers of music makers, mentoring future generations, and providing the soundtrack to our lives.” He is a member of ASCAP<\/strong>, a member of\u00a0Pi Kappa Lambda<\/strong> (National Music Honor Society), a member of the College Music Society<\/strong>, a member of the Mechanical Licensing Collective<\/strong>, a member of ATMI<\/strong> (Association for Technology in Music Instruction), and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Wind Ensemble<\/strong>. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has selected him to serve on multiple judging committees for the Grammy Awards\u00ae<\/sup> (a confidentiality agreement with NARAS precludes the disclosure of the specific categories). At The Metropolitan State University of Denver, Professor Miller\u2019s instructional responsibilities include Arranging and Orchestration, Scoring for Film and Television, and he serves as the Coordinator of Music Technology. Additionally, he guest-lectures in the Brass Techniques class (on arranging for brass quintet), and on creating music for games in the Survey of Computer Games class (TechComm department). In selected outreach seminars, he lectures on scoring for film, television and digital media, the studio recording and mastering process, album production, copyrights\/licensing, and ethical music entrepreneurship.<\/span><\/p>\n

RJ\u2019s former positions include founder, president & CEO of Fahrenheit Records and Celsius Records, executive vice president of Finer Arts Records and F2 Entertainment, general manager and executive producer of Fort\u00e9 Records, music director\/composer on the television series The Master\u2019s Peace Theater<\/strong> (KWHD-TV), interim president of the New Violin Family Association. During his graduate work in composition at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), RJ served an apprenticeship and became a master copyist for the jazz publishing company, Outrageous Mother, Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n

With 50+ years of professional experience, his credits (as composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor, performer, musicologist, producer and\/or executive producer) appear on well over 400 CDs\/albums, laserdiscs, DVDs, CDVs, videos, film and television productions. In addition to his technical reference manuals, course manuals, and text books, his published works include nine volumes of works for piano, four symphonic suites, a symphonic poem and 30+ single movement works for symphony orchestra, over 100 selections for instruments of the New Violin Family, and well over 300 works for string quartets, wind ensemble\/symphonic band, flute orchestra, pops orchestra, brass ensembles, woodwind ensembles, jazz ensembles, percussion ensembles, musique concr\u00e8te, synthesizer ensembles, and other small ensembles of various genres and instrumentation.<\/span><\/p>\n

RJ\u2019s private film scoring, arranging and orchestration students have also enjoyed a multitude of industry successes, accounting for many national and international awards and nominations. For example:<\/span>
\n(2) Grammy Awards<\/span>
\n(7) Grammy Award Nominations<\/span>
\n(1) Academy Award Nomination
\n<\/span>(1) Emmy Award Nomination<\/span>
\n<\/span>(5) British Academy Awards<\/span><\/span>
\n(8) Hollywood Music in Media Awards<\/span>
\n(4) Annual Game Music Awards<\/span>
\n(2) International Film Critics\u2019 Awards<\/span>
\n(8) ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards
\n<\/span>(4) Society of Composers and Lyricists Award Nominations<\/span>
\nplus many, many more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"RJ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Arranger\/orchestrator\/conductor, RJ Miller, 2-time Grammy Award-winning pianist, Peter Kater, 7-time Grammy Award-winning recording engineer, Leslie Ann Jones & recording engineer, Dann Thompson during recording sessions at Skywalker Sound Studios at Skywalker Ranch. The sessions were for Peter Kater’s “Untethered Heart” CD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parts\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon release, Untethered Heart<\/strong> immediately charted at #1 on Amazon’s Hot Sales charts in 14 genres including Adult Contemporary, Orchestra Jazz, Classical Preludes, New Age, Smooth Jazz, Classical Suites, Classical Improvisational, New Age Instrumental, New Age Relaxation, Classical Fantasies, Jazz Fusion, New Age Healing, Avant-Garde & Free Jazz, Classical Concertos.<\/span><\/p>\n

———————————————————————————————-<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>
\nRJ conducting his works with the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic Orchestra at the Grand Hall of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia named after D.D.\u00a0Shostakovich.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>
\nRJ conducting his works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at CTS Studios, London, England.<\/span><\/p>\n

An honor from the Recording Academy:<\/span><\/p>\n

A sampling of some of RJ’s works:<\/span><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/61\/2019\/05\/RJM-Demo-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

A brief sampling of RJ’s accolades:
\n<\/span>(4) Grammy nominations (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences)
\n<\/span>(2) Emmy nominations (National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences)
\n<\/span>(1) Annie Award (International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood)
\n(<\/span>2) Annie Award nominations
\n<\/span>(1) Tony Nomination
\n<\/span>(3) National Film Preservation Board Awards (NFPB – Library of Congress)
\n<\/span>(1) Viva Gold Award (Video Software Distributors Association)
\n<\/span>(3) Viva Gold nominations
\n<\/span>Elected member of Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society)
\n<\/span>Published internationally by Routledge Publishing\/Taylor & Francis Group<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Absolutely useless trivia:
\nPrior to devoting himself to a career in music and by exploiting his extensive background acoustical physics, RJ spent 2.5 years as a Materials Review Board physicist on the Space Shuttle and C4 anti-ballistic missile systems for a NASA subcontractor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 An internationally touted master of orchestration and author of\u00a0Contemporary Orchestration:\u00a0A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians\u00a0(Routledge Publishing\/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014), RJ Miller has enjoyed a richly diverse musical career. He has composed, orchestrated, conducted, and produced contemporary classical recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic Orchestra; … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “RJ Miller Bio”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":46,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.msudenver.edu\/millr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}