Education
- Doctor of Music, Indiana University, 2023
- Master of Music, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , 2011
- Bachelor of Music, Wright State University, 2009
Andy Miller is lecturer in music in percussion at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, with an emphasis in Latin jazz and Afro-Latin percussion music.
An engaging performer and passionate educator, he navigates the diverse world of percussion with technical and musical precision across a broad range of artistic practices. Fostering a deep interest in the percussion music of the African diaspora, Miller has studied with master percussionists in the United States and internationally.
In 2011, he received a Fulbright Grant to Colombia, where he studied Afro-Colombian currulao, cumbia, and bullerengue with “La Wey” Segura, Francis Lara, and Emilsen Pacheco. Miller returned to Colombia with a Presser Graduate Music Award in 2015 to study joropo music with Fernando Torres Ramirez. For his doctoral project, Miller conducted field research in Brazil with Jorge Alabê on the “Language of Afro-Brazilian Candomblé Drumming.”
Recently, Miller’s study of bomba percussion, song, and dance has taken him to Puerto Rico to study with Beto Torrens, Marién Torres, Rafa Maya, and Hector “Coco” Baréz. From 2009 to 2012, he studied mande drumming from Guinea with master percussionist Bolokada Conde, and from 2014 to 2017, he studied Afro-Cuban folkloric and popular percussion with Michael Spiro.
Miller also champions percussion art music by Latin American composers. In 2017, he performed Ricardo Lorenz’s Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Orchestra with Jacobs’ University Orchestra. Commissions include Maria José by Luis Fernando Sanchez Gooding, Silent Surface by Rafael Llanos, and Monologue IV: Bilingüismo by José Martinez, which was included as the required repertoire in the final round of the 2018 Modern Snare Drum Competition. His commitment to new music has also led Miller to hold residencies with the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and the Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble.
From 2017 to 2024, Miller served as music director of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Dance Department, where he accompanied classes in styles including modern, ballet, West African, and Afro-Latin dance. His collaborations with choreographers as a composer/performer have been premiered at Gibney Dance in New York City, throughout the Midwest, and internationally.
Miller has presented at conferences including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, American College Dance Association, and Il Corpo nel Suono international dance musician conference at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
He has previously taught percussion at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Olivet Nazarene University, and Bembé Drum and Dance.