Carin Miller

About Carin

Carin Miller is principal bassoon with the Oregon Symphony, and previously held principal bassoon positions with the Jacksonville and Shreveport Symphony Orchestras. Miller has frequently been invited to perform as guest principal bassoon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as the Oregon Bach Festival and Grant Park Festival Orchestras.

Locally she enjoys performing chamber music with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Classical up Close, and 45th Parallel Universe. She has given recitals through Chatter PDX, Friends of Chamber Music, and All Classical radio 89.9 FM, and was recently featured as soloist with the Oregon Symphony.

A native of Queens, New York, Miller holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, an Master of Music from Rice University, and an Advanced Certificate from the University of Southern California. Her teachers include Whitney Crockett, Frank Morelli, Stephen Maxym, and Benjamin Kamins.

A passionate educator, Miller is the founder and director of the online symposium Bassoons Without Borders and has recently served as faculty at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, Sarasota Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall. She has presented master classes for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Schulich School of Music at McGill University, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, and coaches for the Portland Youth Philharmonic and Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Miller had the great privilege of serving for a year as visiting Adjunct Associate Professor of Bassoon at Indiana University in 2021-2022, and has served on the board of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Miller is currently Adjunct Professor at Oregon State University and Portland State University, as well as curating a private teaching studio from her home in Portland, Oregon.

I believe that every music student has the potential to succeed. The ratio of raw talent to discipline is different for each student, but with the right balance, any student given proper guidance and tools has a chance at a successful career. It is the job of the teacher to unlock awareness, open a student’s ears, create goals for the student to work towards, and meet the student where they are with appropriate challenges to make them feel sufficiently inspired. I find that if a teacher offers genuine care and investment in a student’s progress and belief in their abilities, students will develop self-confidence and work hard to live up to their best vision of themselves. As a teacher, my main goal is to truly understand what motivates each student, to know them as a whole human and meet them where they are. Just as a reedmaker approaches each reed with the idea of balancing it and optimizing it’s potential, that is how I believe a teacher should approach each student. It is a very complex game of problem solving, and the reward is a deep connection with another human, and playing a key role in their ability to actualize their dreams. There is no greater honor.