Elma Miller (b. 1954) is a composer and clarinetist born into an Estonian refugee family. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor’s degree in composition in 1977 and a Master’s degree in 1979 (under the guidance of Walter Buczynski, John Beckwith, John Weinzweig, and Lothar Klein). She furthered her studies at the university’s electronic music studio (supervised by Gustav Ciamaga, William Buxton, and Udo Kasemets) and attended a computer music seminar at Stanford University (under John Chowning and Leland Smith). In 1980, she participated in Bogusław Schäffer’s composition masterclass at York University.
During the 1980s, Miller lived in Hamilton, writing articles and music reviews for Silhouette, Hamilton Magazine, and the Hamilton Spectator. She also contributed to the local radio station CFMU, worked in concert promotion, and gave private lessons. Currently, she is a freelance composer and music engraver based in Burlington. From 2004 to 2008, Miller served as the president of the Association of Canadian Women Composers. Since 2009, she has been a music consultant for the Ontario Arts Council.
Miller has written extensively for the clarinet, as well as orchestral, chamber, and choral music. Her sources of inspiration include astronomy, archaeology, Buddhist meditation, indigenous languages, and her ancestral Estonian heritage. Her works are characterized by a sense of drama, intrigue, humor, and irony. Miller’s style is expressionistic and colorful; she occasionally employs notation freedoms to achieve greater spontaneity in interpretation.
Miller has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Els Kaljot-Vaarman Foundation scholarship (1980) and the Sir Ernest MacMillan Prize for her orchestral work Genesis (1981). Her piece Butterfly Garden was recognized at the R. Murray Schafer competition in Poznań (1997), and her essay on pianist Elaine Keillor won the Canadian Women’s Mentorship Award in Arts and Culture (1999). In 2008, her opera L’Art d’aimer was selected as one of the top five operas in the “Oper’Actuel 08. Work In Progress” competition held by the opera company Chants Libres.