BA (Hons), PGDM (popular music and jazz diploma), PGCE, MA, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Music; Course Leader, Popular Music

Room: Helmore 157

Email: sue.miller@anglia.ac.uk

Telephone: 0845 196 5001
International: +44 1223 363271 ext 5001


Sue Miller's research activity

Initially a linguist (with a Languages BA from York University and an MA in Applied Translation from Leeds University), Sue Miller completed a postgraduate performance diploma at Leeds College of Music in 1994, where she studied jazz, popular, classical and Indian music on flute, tenor saxophone and piano. Sue later founded the UK's only 14-piece charanga orchestra, 'Charanga del Norte', in 1998 and several recordings are featured on the commercial compilations The Essential Guide to Salsa (Union Square Records, 2005 and re-issued 2012), Everybody Salsa Volume 1 (Avid Records, BMG, 1998) and Everybody Salsa Volume 2 (Avid Records, BMG, 1999). In Havana she studied charanga flute improvisation with the famous Cuban flute improviser, arranger and composer Richard Egües (from Orquesta Aragón) before undertaking several UK tours funded by the Arts Council of England.

Sue completed her PhD on 'Flute Improvisation in Cuban Charanga Performance' in 2011 at the University of Leeds, where she combined transcription, analysis, ethnomusicology, semiotics and performance in a multimedia format of full written thesis, music transcriptions, and CD and DVD recordings (of her live and studio performances). She has presented her research at several international conferences in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Havana, and her book Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation is due to be published by Scarecrow Press in 2013. In this book, Sue examines the charanga flute style's development from the early twentieth century decorative approach on the danzón through to the more soloistic style on the mambo, chachachá and son-influenced styles of the 1940s and 50s, as exemplified by the charanga flautists Richard Egües and José Fajardo. The creative processes involved in improvisation are documented here alongside commentary from renowned practitioners of the style. The book explores the polyrhythmic and melodic aspects of the Cuban flute style and defines the salient characteristics of this influential Latin style of improvisation.

Sue's other research interests include the analysis of improvisation, performance practice of popular styles, black cultural studies, music semiotics, intertextuality and historical musicology with a focus on the analysis of recordings, fieldwork and oral history.

Sue taught extensively on the BA in Popular and World Music (PWM) at Leeds University from 2006 to 2012 alongside running performance projects in improvisation and Cuban music for all degree programmes and has taught analysis of both Anglo-American and international popular music forms there. She is interested, in particular, in African American, Afro-Cuban and 'Latin' influenced popular music. Sue enjoys combining theory with practice and has directed many performance and recording projects (covering improvisation, blues, jazz, salsa, mainstream pop and Cuban styles), all of which link in to her analytical and historical-based academic courses.


Areas of supervision:

• Improvisation
• Analysis of Popular and 'World' Music
• Cuban music
• Caribbean and Latin American Music
• Performance Practice (Popular and 'World' Music Styles)
• African American musical forms
• Intertextuality in Popular Music Forms

Sue Miller's personal website.

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