At Las Positas College’s Welcome Back Performing Arts Faculty Concert, musician and new faculty member Ann Miller performed a solo violin piece — Bach’s “Andante” from Sonata No. 2.
Miller’s shoulders rose and fell in dynamic waves as the volume of the piece shifted. She balanced the two melodic lines of Bach’s arrangement as if she were playing two violins at once. At each crescendo, she seemed to float, eyes closed, as if the cries of the violin breathed movement through her.
“It happens naturally,” Miller said.
Her fine-tuned sensibilities are the result of a lifetime of dedication. She began playing violin at age four.
“My mom was a musician, and she was a pianist, but she had a friend whose daughter was starting violin. They were looking for someone to join her in a group class, and so I ended up starting the violin,” she said. “I had an immediate interest in it”.
The emotive quality of violin motivated Miller to stick with the process of learning.
“It was another form of expression for me,” she said. “I really enjoyed it when I first started, but over time the relationship became deeper. I definitely feel like when I have too much time away from it, I really miss it.”
By the time she was a teenager, Miller knew she wanted to pursue violin professionally.
Her high school string quartet shaped her love of performing and her music teachers saw her potential — a key factor in her decision. From childhood through high school, she was coached in both piano and violin.
At Rice University, Miller was mentored by violinist Kathleen Winkler. Miller’s persistence and strong support system culminated in her dream acceptance to Juilliard for graduate school.
“When I was accepted, that was a huge, huge moment for me,” she said.
Today, Miller plays in a piano trio, Trio 180, where she enjoys the synergy of chamber music.
“When you’ve been playing with others for a long period of time, it’s like you can kind of anticipate, through their movements or through what you’re hearing, what they’re going to do artistically. And that can be very inspiring,” Miller said.
She listed Romantic-period composers Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Antonín Dvořák as some of her favorites to play, reflecting her love of emotional expression in music.
Miller hopes to share the joy and fulfillment of music-making with her students at LPC.
“Obviously there’s a lot of tedious work that goes into playing music. And once, or in addition to putting in that tedious work, there’s always this incredible reward as well. So, hopefully I’m sharing that joy,” she said.
Concurrently a professor of music at the University of the Pacific, Miller’s teaching is defined by her receptivity.
“Her teaching style is very much curated to what you need,” said Charlotte Han, a musician Miller coached for four years at UOP.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit during Han’s freshman year of her violin performance degree. Burned out from her typical repertoire and isolated during online Zoom lessons, she knew it was time to pivot from her goal of becoming a classic orchestral violinist — and was met with nothing but acceptance from Miller.
“I want to explore nontraditional classical things. I want to play music by Taiwanese composers, I want to play music by these female composers. A lot of repertoire that maybe she didn’t know,” Han said. “But she was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll learn it so I can teach it to you the best that I can.’ And I think that is what helped me maintain my relationship with the violin.”
“I’ll take that with me for the rest of my life — being able to play what I’m interested in so that I could maintain a healthy and happy relationship with my instruments and my career.”
As an advisor, Miller pays forward the support that facilitated her grad school acceptance.
“She was so willing to even just override certain requirements for my degree so that it would fit in with the career interests that I actually had. I did a music management minor as well, so that was a huge part of me being able to do that and to develop my interest in music industry stuff, and then get into grad school for it,” Han said. “If it wasn’t for her, I would have been stuck more so in the molds of a classical violin performance degree.”
In addition to her bachelor’s in violin performance and minor in music management from UOP, Han holds a master’s degree in record production from the London College of Music. Today, she pursues a variety of musical endeavors as a violinist, arts administrator and recording engineer.
Beyond UOP, Miller wanted to expand the range of students she worked with. LPC was just the right place. She currently teaches one-on-one violin lessons as part of the LPC music department’s Applied Lessons Program.
According to the LPC website, the Applied Lessons Program offers music majors “highly affordable private instruction in a variety of instruments (both jazz and classical), voice and composition in preparation for transfer as music majors to four-year universities and conservatories.” Students pursuing a music degree must take the Applied Music class four times, with the level of difficulty increasing each semester.
Miller encourages her students to strike a balance between their commitment to their craft and life outside of it.
“Work hard, practice hard, and take time for yourself to experience life and the joys of life because that will also impact your artistry,” Miller said.“Resilience is key. And if you have that passion, really go for it.”
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TOP PHOTO: Violinist and educator Ann Miller performs Bach’s “Andante” from Sonata No. 2 for LPC’s Welcome Back Performing Arts Faculty Concert. (Photo credit Jaxyn Good/The Express)
Jaxyn Good is a staff writer for The Express.
