Open Application winner (composer), 2024-25

American composer and pianist Miles Walter's music weaves together song and dance in vivid, intelligent counterpoint, drawing on a global wealth of musical strands to plumb the depth and range of human feeling. Praised as “densely contrapuntal” and for its “churning, Romantic-era-infused harmonies'' (Aspen Times), his work has been commissioned and performed by (among others) the Venice Biennale, Lontano Ensemble, New York Virtuoso Singers, Aspen Chamber Symphony (cond. Nicholas McGegan), Argento Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Merz Trio, Yale Percussion Group, Bertrand Chamayou, Lee Dionne, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, and Cameron Stowe; his composition work has received recognition from BMI, the Aspen Music Festival and School (Jacob Druckman Prize), and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Scholarship).

As a pianist, Miles is an avid collaborator and chamber musician. He has worked with numerous musicians and ensembles including Rolston, Callisto, and Isidore Quartets, Argento Ensemble, icarus Quartet, Cantata Profana, Orchestra New England (world-premiere Ives recordings, released on Naxos), New York Virtuoso Singers, choreographer Jennifer Jancuska (Hamilton) & the BringAbout, New Chamber Ballet, and Mark Morris Dance Group. Committed to an eclectic and wide-ranging performance practice, he has premiered over four dozen works by his peers, students, and mentors alike, and plays fluently in numerous non- and semi-notated styles, both in- and outside the concert hall.

Miles holds a BA (Music) and an MM (Composition) from Yale, where he studied Piano with Wei-Yi Yang and Composition with Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, and David Lang. He is presently a PhD candidate at King’s College London, where he studies with Sir George Benjamin