AURORA MILLER, violinist
Aurora Miller, age 20, is a student of Sibbi Bernhardsson at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Aurora began studying the violin at age 3. Her first teachers were Kristen Krauss, and Katherine Gerson, and she later studied with Nurit Pacht, Lucie Robert, and Elizabeth Chang. In high school, she was accepted into the Juilliard Pre-College. Aurora was the winner of the LaGuardia High School 2022 Concerto Competition and the second place winner of the 2022 International Grande Music Competition in violin.
Chamber music has been at the heart of Aurora’s musical experience since the age of 8. She was a member of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program and has played chamber music for several summers at Kinhaven, BUTI and GreenMountain, Madeline Island as well as the Kaufman Music Center. In 2019, Aurora’s piano trio won second prize at the International Grande Music Competition, performing the Mendelssohn Trio in D minor in a concert at Merkin Hall.
As a member of the New York Youth Symphony in 2020, Aurora recorded with the orchestra their first studio album, which won a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance in 2023. In previous years, she sat as Assistant Concertmaster for both the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Symphony and the LaGuardia High School Orchestra. Aurora also sat Assistant Principal Second in the New York String Orchestra Seminar, conducted by Jaime Laredo. During the past summers, she attended Brevard Music Center as a member of the Concertmaster Studio, BUTI Young Artist Orchestra, GreenMountain Chamber Music Festival and the Kinhaven Music School.
She has had the privilege of playing in masterclasses with Vadim Guzman (at Merkin Hall) and Peter Zazofsky (at the newly built Linde Center at the Tanglewood Music Center) and Midori Gotō at Oberlin.
Aurora is going into her Junior Year at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Apart from her music classes, Aurora loves taking creative writing classes. She also enjoys rock climbing in her free time.