David Alan Miller

David Alan Miller is a conductor best known as the longtime music director of the Albany Symphony, where he has built a reputation for championing living composers alongside core repertoire. Listeners can expect programs that mix world premieres with staples like Brahms, Elgar, and Rachmaninoff, often paired with new works by American composers.

Expect programs that place brand new pieces next to well loved classics, a hallmark of Miller's approach with the Albany Symphony. He regularly opens concerts with a world premiere, sometimes by an emerging composer, then follows with a familiar concerto or symphony, letting audiences hear old and new side by side. His seasons often include double bills of concertos for the same instrument, such as pairing two different saxophone concertos on one program, which invites direct comparison of musical voices. He also leads themed holiday programs that blend Handel or Vivaldi with festive premieres, and large orchestral showpieces like Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, which calls for a big orchestra to portray a sweeping, autobiographical hero narrative in sound. Across genres, the throughline is a conductor unafraid to build a whole evening around unfamiliar music.