Music Program
Performing Arts Department

Eric Millard is the Assistant Professor of Trumpet at UNC Charlotte. He also serves as the Principal Trumpet of the South Carolina Philharmonic and director of the Charlotte Youth Trumpet Ensemble. Millard has also performed with the Charlotte Symphony, Charlotte Ballet, Opera Carolina, Boise Philharmonic, Ballet Idaho, and Tallahassee Symphony, among others.  Millard’s fond interest in chamber music led him to co-found the Palisade Trumpet Collective, a trumpet ensemble of professors from around the country, dedicated to commissioning and performing new works for trumpet ensemble. Millard has won prizes at the National Trumpet Competition (NTC) and performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference with multiple trumpet ensembles. Playing in a wide range of styles, Millard has also performed in numerous shows, including most recently, the national tour of “Aladdin the Musical”.

As a soloist, Millard has won prizes at prestigious competitions such as the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Solo Competition, NTC, Music Teachers National Association Solo Competition, and the U.S. Army Band National Collegiate Solo Competition and has won concerto competitions at both of his alma maters.  Recently, Eric has been a member of ensembles that have been invited to perform at festivals and conferences including the Concert Band Directors National Association Conference, the North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals, Florida State Music Teachers Association Conference, and the ITG Conference.

As a teacher, Dr. Millard’s students have been selected for honors such as ITG Conference scholarships, finalists and semifinalists at the National Trumpet Competition in both solo and ensemble divisions, Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Fellowship, and the Disney All-American College Band. Millard also enjoys being active as a clinician, frequently giving classes at universities and high schools across the country.

Millard received his Doctorate and Master’s Degrees in Trumpet Performance from Florida State University and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from the University of Kentucky.  Millard’s primary instructors were Dr. Christopher Moore, Vince Dimartino, Robert Sullivan, Mark Clodfelter, and Dr. William Stowman.  Dr. Millard also serves as the Rule Coordinator for the National Trumpet Competition and as the Book Reviews Column Editor for the International Trumpet Guild Journal. 

Please join us for this wonderful mix of music featuring the talented Dr Eric Millard.

Dr. Millard will perform music by Jeffrey Curnow, Catherine McMichael, Anthony Plog, Astor Piazzolla, Cecilia McDowall, and Kait Nishimura. Dr. Joe Nibley will join him on the final piece, Kevin McKee's "Under Western Skies".

Pianist Peter Miyamoto has enjoyed a brilliant international career, performing to great acclaim in recital and as soloist in Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, China, and Japan, and in major US cities such as Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.  In 1990, Miyamoto was named the first Gilmore Young Artist.  He won numerous other competitions, including the American Pianist Association National Fellowship Competition, the D’Angelo Competition, the San Francisco Symphony Competition and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Competition, and was a top-prize winner in the National Chopin Piano Competition.

Peter Miyamoto holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University School of Music, Michigan State University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London.  His teachers included Maria Curcio-Diamand, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Marek Jablonski, Aube Tzerko, and Ralph Votapek, as well as Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir and Lorand Fenyves for chamber music.  A dedicated chamber musician, he has collaborated with such musician as Charles Castleman, Victor Danchenko, Joel Krosnick, Lara St. John, Anthony McGill, Amit Peled, David Shifrin, Allan Vogel, singer Lucy Shelton, and members of the Juilliard, Borromeo and Pacific String Quartets.  He is the Executive Director of the Plowman Chamber Music Competition.

Currently Middlebush Chair of Piano at the University of Missouri, where he was also named 2021 Professor of the Year, Peter Miyamoto formerly taught at Michigan State University, and the California Institute of the Arts.  He has presented lectures and master classes through the Irving S. Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Amadeus Piano Festival, at numerous music institutions including the Colburn School, Interlochen Academy of the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Michigan among many others, as well as internationally in Canada, Chinga, Greece, Japan and Serbia. From 2003-2015 he served as head of the piano faculty at the New York Summer Music Festival and has served on the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music’s Young Artist Summer Program and the Curtis Mentor Network Program in Philadelphia. 

Miyamoto’s six solo CDs, available on the Blue-Griffin label, have received excellent reviews in periodicals such as Gramophone, International Record Review, Fanfare, and American Record Guide and were recognized by the American Prize. He has also recorded a CD with violinist Julie Rosenfeld of world-premieres of six works for violin and piano on the Albany label, produced by GRAMMY Award winner Judith Sherman.