Lloyd Miller (musician)

Lloyd Miller (born 1938) is an American jazz musician and world music expert who is well known for his research work on Persian music and Afghan music. He can play 100 instruments in 15 jazz, ethnic and world music traditions.

Lloyd Miller received a doctorate in Middle East Studies: Persian, concentrating on Persian music with a minor in music (jazz.) In 1970 Miller was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to return to Iran to research and complete his dissertation soon after was published by Rutledge Curzon under the title "Music and Song in Persia." While writing his dissertation, Miller spent 7 years in Tehran as an arts writer for several publications and as a PR person for the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music. In 2012, his original first PhD dissertation was published by Eastern Arts at BYU under the title Afghan Music and Dance.

His native language is English, and he is fluent in Persian, Dari and French, capable in Swedish, German and a few other languages. In the early 1960s Lloyd attended the Sorbonne and the Langues Orientale in Paris and went to school in Geneva for a time. During the 1950s and 60s, Miller played with top jazz artists in Europe like Don Ellis and Eddie Harris. Miller was interested in eastern culture and music. He also was the soloist in the music ensemble of the famous Jef Gilson in Paris.

In 1963, Miller returned to the U.S. to study at BYU in Utah. There he organized Eastern and jazz music ensembles and won the composer's trophy at the 1967 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival before earning his BA in Asian Studies then going on to University of Utah to work on a MA in Middle East Studies. in 1967 under sponsorship of the Middle East Center and the Music Department, Miller initiated and taught classes in music of Persia, Afghanistan and the Far East until the early 1980s adding jazz classes in the late 1970s. In 1968 and 1969 Miller again won trophies at the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival and attended the intercollegiate nationals in St. Louis. In 1969 he won the national Sounds of Young America composers contest for his Indonesian jazz piece Yona.

In 1969 Miller went to Iran again on a Fulbright scholarship and remained there 7 years mastering Persian music as well as other Middle Eastern traditional and folk music genres mainly under the supervision of masters Dr. Daryush Safvat and Mahmud Karimi as well as other masters who, as the world's experts in the field, recommended Miller's research work to his U of U dissertation committee who approved his music dissertation based on authorization by Dr. Safvat and master Karimi. In 1996 Miller initiated and taught classes in Persian, Afghan and Far Eastern music at BYU until recently.

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