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"And yet, though I have been away, the concerts I play, the music I write, the ideas I pursue and the feelings I trust are but Eastern Oregon turned into music."
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Hubbard Miller (1934-1982)
Hub grew up on a 5,000-acre ranch in Eastern Oregon. He attended the University of Washington and went on to become one of Seattle's best-known composers and musicians. He was also one of the most original thinkers of his time and place, and an astonishingly good writer. William L. Spencer
This web site is dedicated to promoting the words and music of Hub Miller.
A man both complicated and simple, Hubbard Miller grew up on a ranch in Eastern Oregon, becoming a first-rate cowhand while coming to terms with an immense talent for music. During his too short life he was both an expert in electrical engineering and a classically trained musician, composing, conducting, and performing. His precocious gifts took him back and forth between his beloved Northwest and New York City, where his work shifted from lucrative electrical design to free-lance musician. Working with the likes of Joffrey Ballet, Bette Midler, and the Broadway production Hair, he developed his eclectic skills. Hub's early childhood years in the rich beauty of the mountainous Northwest shaped the images and ideas that dominated his artistic choices, and he eventually chose Seattle as his home. He maintained his musical life composing, conducting, and playing for the Pacific N.W. Ballet, developing touring educational shows for Seattle Opera, and working with the area's finest singers. Hub's jeans, pony tail, and cowboy boots, alongside his appreciation for the simplicity of "countrified" music, made him suspect in classical music circles. With a musical voice both fresh and unique, he embraced a multitude of styles. Hub's studies in philosophy, especially the I Ching, underlined his own convictions about the unity of all life. Most of his songs set human experience against a backdrop of the larger cycles of life on earth. Whether hiking in the mountains or presenting the magic of music to school children, Hub was always in the middle of a new creation, story or song. "Let the world spin" (from the text of Spinning Song) sums up Hub's deep commitment to nature, a bond unbroken in his lifetime. His ability to embrace complex intellectual and spiritual concepts never overwhelmed the direct simplicity that imbues his music. *
*This biography was compiled by Carol Webber from a larger form written by Constance Haas in her dissertation, "The songs of Hubbard Miller, a composer for the Pacific Northwest" UMI Dissertation Service, Ann Arbor Michigan. A scanned final draft of her dissertation is here.
Hub grew up on a 5,000-acre ranch in Eastern Oregon. He attended the University of Washington and went on to become one of Seattle's best-known composers and musicians. He was also one of the most original thinkers of his time and place, and an astonishingly good writer. William L. Spencer
This web site is dedicated to promoting the words and music of Hub Miller.
A man both complicated and simple, Hubbard Miller grew up on a ranch in Eastern Oregon, becoming a first-rate cowhand while coming to terms with an immense talent for music. During his too short life he was both an expert in electrical engineering and a classically trained musician, composing, conducting, and performing. His precocious gifts took him back and forth between his beloved Northwest and New York City, where his work shifted from lucrative electrical design to free-lance musician. Working with the likes of Joffrey Ballet, Bette Midler, and the Broadway production Hair, he developed his eclectic skills. Hub's early childhood years in the rich beauty of the mountainous Northwest shaped the images and ideas that dominated his artistic choices, and he eventually chose Seattle as his home. He maintained his musical life composing, conducting, and playing for the Pacific N.W. Ballet, developing touring educational shows for Seattle Opera, and working with the area's finest singers. Hub's jeans, pony tail, and cowboy boots, alongside his appreciation for the simplicity of "countrified" music, made him suspect in classical music circles. With a musical voice both fresh and unique, he embraced a multitude of styles. Hub's studies in philosophy, especially the I Ching, underlined his own convictions about the unity of all life. Most of his songs set human experience against a backdrop of the larger cycles of life on earth. Whether hiking in the mountains or presenting the magic of music to school children, Hub was always in the middle of a new creation, story or song. "Let the world spin" (from the text of Spinning Song) sums up Hub's deep commitment to nature, a bond unbroken in his lifetime. His ability to embrace complex intellectual and spiritual concepts never overwhelmed the direct simplicity that imbues his music. *
*This biography was compiled by Carol Webber from a larger form written by Constance Haas in her dissertation, "The songs of Hubbard Miller, a composer for the Pacific Northwest" UMI Dissertation Service, Ann Arbor Michigan. A scanned final draft of her dissertation is here.
For some more about Hub's career with the Joffrey Ballet, see the PBS American Masters Documentary "The Making of Joffrey's Astarte"
"One day, he brought in a musician, Hub Miller, that he knew from Seattle. He probably had been meeting and talking to Hub weeks and weeks before Max and I ever knew it, about writing a commissioned score for this particular piece. Hub wanted Mr. Joffrey to listen to a couple of rock bands that were sort of making a scene in Seattle at that time. So we go to this night club place and there’s a band playing, it’s the Chrome Circus, and suddenly they’re going to be doing the commissioned score for it, and Hub’s going to head it up. So, okay, there’s going to be a rock band in the pit. That was part two of the equation I guess you could say."
"One day, he brought in a musician, Hub Miller, that he knew from Seattle. He probably had been meeting and talking to Hub weeks and weeks before Max and I ever knew it, about writing a commissioned score for this particular piece. Hub wanted Mr. Joffrey to listen to a couple of rock bands that were sort of making a scene in Seattle at that time. So we go to this night club place and there’s a band playing, it’s the Chrome Circus, and suddenly they’re going to be doing the commissioned score for it, and Hub’s going to head it up. So, okay, there’s going to be a rock band in the pit. That was part two of the equation I guess you could say."