Miller was born in New York City and grew up in Mount Vernon. His early musical studies were with Mathilde McKinney and Abbey Simon, after which he studied at Princeton University where he graduated in 1952, magna cum laude in music, with a senior thesis on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. After serving in Korea with the U. S. Army for two years, he decided that the music he preferred to play would never lead to success with critics or to public fame in a world which he saw as one of musical museums, public salons and performing circuses. Consequently, he studied law at Columbia University where he graduated in 1957, the same year that he made his formal debut as a pianist in Carnegie Recital Hall. He was admitted to the bar in the following year, joining the firm of Scribner & Miller and becoming a partner in 1965. This firm later became Miller & McCarthy. As a pianist, Miller specialized in performing music by Northeastern American composers "of a cerebral, technically demanding bent", such as Milton Babbitt, Stefan Wolpe, Charles Wuorinen and Elliott Carter. Mario Davidovsky wrote his Pulitzer Prize–winning Synchronisms No. 6 for Piano and Electronic Sound for Miller. His fluent technique enabled him on one occasion to learn Roger Sessions's Second Piano Sonata in a single night. He performed throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Latin America. Beginning in 1964, he taught in the summers at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center in Vermont, and also gave master classes and seminars throughout the US.. He died of cancer at 50 years of age on November 30, 1981, in Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York,. The Group for Contemporary Music presented a memorial concert for Miller on November 30, 1982, and released an LP dedicated to his memory in 1982. It contained the pianist's final recording, Wuorinen's Arabia Felix.
Discography
Billy Jim Layton: Five Studies for Violin and Piano ; Three Studies for Piano, op. 5 ; Claudio Spies: Impromptu, for piano ; Viopiacem ; Charles Whittenberg: String Quartet in One Movement. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. CRI SD 257. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1970.
Arthur Berger: Septet ; Five Pieces for Piano ; Peter Westergaard: Variations for Six Players ; Harvey Sollberger: Grand Quartet for Flutes. Acoustic Research Contemporary Music Project 6. LP recording 1 sound disc: 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. AR 0654 088; West Germany: AR, 1971.
The Contemporary Composer in the U.S.A. Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 6 ; Electronic Study No. 3 ; Synchronisms No. 5. Barbara Kolb: Trobar clus ; Solitaire. LP recording 1 sound disc: 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Turnabout TV-S 34487. : Turnabout, 1972.
Contemporary Piano Music. Charles Wuorinen: Piano Sonata; Stefan Wolpe: Form and Form IV; Yehudi Wyner: Three Short Fantasies; George Perle: Toccata. Robert Miller, piano. LP recording, 1 sound disc: 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Composers Recordings CRI SD 306. New York: Composers Recordings, 1974.
George Crumb: Makrokosmos: Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac, for Amplified Piano.. Robert Miller, piano. Modern American Music Series. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Columbia Odyssey Y 34135. New York, N.Y.: Columbia Records, 1976.
Sound Forms for Piano. Henry Cowell: The Banshee, Aeolian Harp, Piano Piece ; Ben Johnston: Sonata for Microtonal Piano; John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata I, Sonata V, Second Interlude, Sonata X, Sonata XII ; Conlon Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano Nos. 1, 27, and 36. LP recording, 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. New World Records NW 203. New York: New World Records, 1976.
New Music for Virtuosos. Milton Babbitt: Phonemena, for soprano and piano ; Phonemena, for soprano and tape ; Reflections, for piano and synthesized tape; Post-partitions ; William O. Smith: Fancies, for clarinet alone ; Leslie Bassett: Music for Saxophone and Piano ; Charles Wuorinen: Bassoon Variations. Recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, 30th St., New York. Recorded Anthology of American Music. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. New World Records NW 209. New York: New World Records, 1977.
John Harbison: Piano Concerto; David Stock: Inner Space. Robert Miller, piano ; American Composers Orchestra; Gunther Schuller, conductor. Recorded May 13, 1980, Church of the Holy Trinity, New York. American Contemporary. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo, 12 in.. CRI SD 440. New York, N.Y.: Composers Recordings Inc., 1981.
Charles Wuorinen: Arabia Felix ; Harvey Sollberger: Angel and Stone. Nicolas Roussakis: Voyage: ordre, beauté, luxe, calme, volupté. Recorded 1981–1982. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Composers Recordings CRI SD 463. New York: Composers Recordings, 1982.
