He is a soloist and orchestral trumpeter and teacher born in Fife, Scotland, with a father and uncle who were also trumpeters.
He began playing the trumpet in a brass band when he was seven years old and later became a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He was taught at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and in 1970 he moved down to England to study at King’s College, Cambridge, and was taught by Philip Jones, Howard Snell and Elgar Howarth, all of whom he would appear with as part of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.
He received a scholarship for his postgraduate year and in 1977 was regularly heard with the London Sinfonietta as a freelance musician.
His work has been heard with ensembles such as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and for many years he was the second trumpet to John Wallace for the Philharmonia Orchestra, becoming a founding member of the Wallace Collection.
His many recordings have seen him performing solo baroque pieces and other works of that genre alongside John Wallace. His numerous recordings include the compilation Masters of the Baroque, Vivaldi Concerti: Baroque Trumpet Music with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Eine Kleine Brass Musik, The 20th Century Album andGreatest Hits with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Baltic Brass, Hammered Brass and The Golden Section with the Wallace Collection.
As a teacher he has been a Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music, retiring in 2017.
Sources:
- http://jazzplus.gmn.com/artists/artist.asp?id=2212&bio=true
- http://www.trumpetguild.org/pdf/2005journal/200501Miller.pdf
- http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/main/1757b.html
- http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/pjbe/db/show.php?&id=12