Caroline Louise Miller (they/them) is a US composer based in Portland, Oregon. Common themes addressed in their work include affect, ecology, labor politics, tactility, materiality of media, dreams, and hidden dimensions of reality or history, often within dreamlike musical spaces that thread field recordings, shimmering textures, and romantic melodic lines through harsh noise and clattering dissonances. They have enjoyed wide-ranging collaborations, including works for musical theater, short film, contemporary chamber ensemble, installation, acousmatic fixed media, field recording, improvisation, and jazz big band. Grants, fellowships, and commissions have supported their work. These have most recently included funding through Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, Sonic Matter, Alarm Will Sound, SPLICE Ensemble, Chamber Music America, Guerilla Opera, Transient Canvas, Ensemble Adapter, and others. Their work has appeared at festivals across the world, including MUSLAB International Electroacoustic Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, New Music Gathering, Strange Beautiful Music, SPOR festival of Contemporary Music & Sound Art, Sonic Matter Festival, International Women’s Brass Conference, UNK New Music Festival, SEAMUS, SPLICE Festival, Alba Music Festival, Darmstadt Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik, Heroines of Sound Festival, and Subtropics Festival. Their music is performed nationally and internationally.
In 2014, Miller worked as an artist-in-residence taking field recordings aboard a Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessel in the Philippine Sea, sailing from Kaohsiung, Taiwan to Koror, Palau. The recordings from the ship were used to compose the score for a feature-length experimental documentary by Lyndsay Bloom about daily life aboard the RV Roger Revelle. From 2012-2017, Miller organized and curated an annual new music and cross-disciplinary collaborative showcase at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. Visitors to the event were treated to a variety of experimental musical acts as they perused aquatic galleries, and the event drew hundreds of visitors each year. At Portland State, Miller co-organizes ReWire Festival, an annual spring showcase of work involving collaborations between SAMP, Theater, and other disciplines.
Dr. Miller teaches courses including electronic music composition, songwriting, studio production, and music for visual media. They a hold a Ph.D in Music Composition from UC San Diego. In their spare time, they enjoy learning about zoology and sonic behaviors of animals and ecosystems, and try to always have their field recorder on hand.