Cassandra Miller

About Cassandra

Cassandra Miller is an acclaimed Canadian-British composer living in London. Her composition methods incorporate a unique practice of meditation-based uncontrolled singing to learn about melody and repetition. She uses these vocal exercises together with creative transcription processes to transform pre-existing musical sources (from both within and outside the classical tradition) to magnify their expressive, personal, or fragile qualities.

“Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude,” wrote Alex Ross of her work in The New Yorker, while The Guardian hailed her “Duet for Cello and Orchestra” as among the top 20 “Best Classical Music Works of the 21st Century.” Over the past year, her works have appeared internationally at the BBC Proms, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and on tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has twice received the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest honour for composition. In 2025, she will be a visiting scholar for three months as lecturer at Stanford University.

Endless possibility

“I originally went to UVic to study my instrument—the harp. On the first day of classes I took a composition elective and then realized, ‘Oh gosh, this is what I do now.’ It was life-changing. It was a kind of department where, as far as creativity goes, anything was possible… You were taught that to be an artist was to be a bit of a weirdo. It was so freeing and so important. I learned about myself… how to be that kind of creative, how to be free and playful by being myself… At the time I just thought that was good education, but afterwards I realized that it was also artistically incredibly unique and important. It was a very special place.”

Collaboration and listening

“There's a lot of what I do that's extremely collaborative. On the surface, it looks like I'm sitting at home staring at my computer, but because I'm writing music for other people to play, even the least collaborative project is extremely collaborative. And then there’s the idea of making space for another person, and it's a skill that I'm continuously learning. Every opportunity to interact with somebody is an opportunity to learn how to listen better. And the other side of that is listening to oneself and making the space to listen to what's going on inside and what needs to happen and how to make space.”

What I've learned

“I’ve learned how to gather around me the support that I need. This was something I learned late in life... I have pretty strong ADHD, and I need to hire an assistant. I need to hire a personal trainer. I need to have a therapist at all times. I also need to keep my family and friends close, and I always need to live with somebody. There’s a lot of things I need that I’m getting better at asking for and putting into place.”

'Try less hard'

“A friend of mine used the mantra ‘Try less hard,’ and I took it on… It's about making that space for listening. Often when you're trying too hard for something, you're not making the space to listen to what's really going on. Often the solution is to change a situation or try something a bit differently. But if you're already trying hard, trying harder usually isn't the thing that's going to make it work.”