Joshua William Mills (b. 1984) recently completed his course of study at the Greatbatch School of Music at Houghton College (Houghton, New York). While there, his compositional output and musical abilities have attracted the attention and respect of both colleagues and faculty. He will be continuing his studies next September at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he will study with composer Nicholas Maw.
While by no means a child prodigy, music was an important element of his earlier years, studying first piano and later switching to clarinet at the age of 10. As his musical gifts became increasingly apparent, he became more involved with various musical activities. By the time he graduated from high school in 2003 (with the academic ranking of third in his class), Mr Mills had played with the All New Jersey Wind Ensemble, the Garden State Pops Youth Orchestra, the All South Jersey Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, and the Rowan Youth Orchestra, all in addition to private clarinet and piano study and his key roles in his high school concert, marching, and jazz bands. After a semester of study at the Greatbatch School of Music, Mr Mills began to play double bass to fill a vacancy in the Houghton Philharmonia. He demonstrated a particular aptitude for the instrument and progressed rapidly. By the beginning of his second year at Houghton, he had won the principal position, and in 2005, he joined the Southern Tier Symphony (Olean, New York); in 2006, he was accepted for the MasterWorks Festival Orchestra in Winona Lake, Indiana. Throughout his career at Houghton, he was a clarinetist in the clarinet choir and Symphonic Winds, sang in the College Choir, was a bassist with the Houghton Philharmonia Orchestra, and regularly offered his abilities for sundry other performance and recording projects.
As a composer, Mr Mills experienced a late start: he did not begin to study composition until 2002, and upon beginning his undergraduate studies at Houghton, his catalogue numbered only six completed works. Since then, however, his output has been surprisingly prolific and varied: media range from solo piano to choral works and from chamber ensembles to orchestral and symphonic band scores. His music generally represents a postmodern approach to composition with tightly-constructed materials and an integrated eclecticism that negotiates the tension between artistic integrity and accessibility. The results have been what are often deeply intense but still listenable works, and they have been well-received. His first notable performance was in May 2003 when he performed the second movement of his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (2002) on a concert of the Rowan Youth Orchestra in Glassboro, New Jersey. In 2006, he was accepted for the Interlochen Composers' Institute where his Common Things was performed by the Institute Chamber Players. In November 2006, his senior recital All Things New was described as “…truly profound…”. His Holy Sonnet XIX was selected for the Buffalo Phiharmonic Orchestra's 2007 Young Composers' Forum, where the orchestra read and critiqued the work; composer John Corigliano was present and the readings and described the piece as “Beautiful. Beautiful.” In 2007, his Pax Vobis won the Houghton College Symphonic Band Composition Competition and was subsequently premièred by the ensemble under his baton on 20 April 2007.
A multi-faceted and tireless musician, he has studied clarinet with Jun Qian, double bass with Paul Kroll, piano with William John Newbrough, and conducting with Gregory Magie in addition to his compositional studies at Houghton where his primary teachers have been Mark Hijleh and Sun Mi Ro.
Outside of music, Mr Mills enjoys playing tennis, running, literature, and theology. He is a devout Christian with especial interests in liturgy, sacramental life, and the state of the contemporary Western church. His beliefs are largely the result of a combination of Reformed, Lutheran, postmodern, and paleo-orthodox thought.
First Symphony – A Spiritual Narrative
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
