Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Miller.
Hi Allie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a child, I tried several hobbies and activities such as gymnastics, softball, etc., and couldn’t seem to find anything I liked or had a natural talent for. Coming from a musical family, my mother encouraged me to try learning a musical instrument, and I choose the violin. I started private violin lessons when I was six years old, and never looked back. For the first several years, it was a hobby for me, but when I reached the 7th grade, my violin teacher told me I had the talent and potential to make violin a career if I practiced about 3-6 hours every day consistently for several years. This inevitably meant I didn’t have much of a social life outside of school, and when I wasn’t doing homework, I was practicing my violin. Deciding to become career-minded at such a young age took a lot of strength, determination, and patience; I sometimes felt like I grew up a bit earlier than my peers. Though I was often lonely and burned out, my passion for violin drove me forward. Twenty years later, I’m proud of how my tenacity and hard work got me to where I am today.
I am currently a section violinist in the Richardson Symphony Orchestra and Plano Symphony Orchestra, and am the concertmaster, orchestra manager, and orchestra librarian at First Baptist Dallas. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music in Violin (NCTM) of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), I am also an active violin instructor, and enjoy freelance performing and recording around the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex. Previous work experiences include being an adjunct music professor at Tarrant County College, serving as the orchestra librarian at the Blair School of Music, and interning with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, among others.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance and music history and literature from Vanderbilt University in 2017, and then went on to receive a Master of Music degree in violin performance from Texas Christian University in 2019, where I was a graduate teaching assistant and was invited to join the Gamma Epsilon chapter of the national music honors society, Pi Kappa Lambda. A native Texan, I graduated with honors from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 2013, and have recently moved back to Dallas with my husband, a cellist, composer, and church music director.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Fortunately, I had extremely supportive parents who were able to support my violin education over the years. I also started preparing for a career in violin early enough that my path through music school seemed to flow naturally from one degree into the next without too many obstacles. The struggles and challenges I faced developing a career as a violinist mostly came from the burn-out from long days of practicing – it’s natural to want to stop and give up when progress and development continues to get harder and more challenging. There would be days I felt like my technique and skills were going absolutely nowhere, so mustering up the patience and will to keep going took years of self-discipline on my end. I also struggled with the extremely competitive nature of the music industry, which forced me to always be extremely self-critical about my violin-playing – even now, it’s still easy to constantly compare myself to others in the field and aim to be “the best”. In the moment, these struggles often made me regret the decision to choose violin as my career path. Looking back, though, overcoming these struggles helped me grow as a person and into a better musician.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I love that I kept an open mind about my career as a violinist. I knew from a young age that I wanted to perform, but it wasn’t until later that I started developing skills and interests in music education, arts administration, and music business. The truth is, there’s so many awesome kinds of jobs in the music industry, why only pursue one? Since most musicians work multiple jobs and/or entrepreneurial endeavors to make a full-time music career, I was happy to build mine with enough variety to keep me and my schedule thriving. My weekdays are filled primarily with orchestra administration, but my weeknights and weekends stay filled with performing. It’s a great balance, and I love it.
Music is such an important part of our culture; it brings people together and resonates with us in ways nothing else can. It’s a blessing to make a career of something so magical and amazing, and I love getting to express myself through playing the violin and creating music.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I would say my persistence to practice my violin 3-6 hours a day was the most logistical key to my success. Without putting the practice time in, it’s almost impossible to become a professional musician. It’s truly the only way to get better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.allieviolin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allieviolinist/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/allieviolinist
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxd2ZEZuCOmrLTEfxF1WEIQ
