Michael Millar has been a freelance bass trombonist in Los Angeles for more than thirty years. Active in jingle, film and television work, he has toured with the late Harry James, Jerry Lewis and Ray Conniff, and is a DMA graduate of Claremont Graduate University. Millar is currently Director of Development for Southwest Chamber Music as well as an adjunct professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Bass trombonist and music educator Michael Millar covers a broad range of topics relating to his success as a musician, including his education and early career; his work with Southwest Chamber Music; and practical advice for musicians who are ready to take the next step in their professional careers.
In this presentation given at the 2008 meeting of the College Music Society, Michael Millar shares some valuable advice and tips on identifying your career goals, target audience, values, and best opportunities – all in the service of building a master plan that will help you launch a successful career in the arts, or for that matter, any field you choose.
In this segment of a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society meeting in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains what the public speaking organization Toastmasters can do to help you improve your presentation skills.
Bass trombonist and music teacher Michael Millar gives an overview of his education and early career as a musician, and explains why Southern California is a great place to be a musician.
In this segment from a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society Conference in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar introduces the key themes of his lecture as adopted from management guru Peter Drucker, and explains how the management concepts he presents can be used by musicians to make themselves better musicians.
In this segment of a roundtable discussion held at the College Music Society’s 2008 meeting in Atlanta, GA, panelists Gary Beckman, Michael Drapkin and Michael Millar are introduced.
In this segment from a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society Conference in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains one of the key concepts of his career-development method, as adapted from management guru Peter Drucker – how examine your values, opportunities, skills, and the contributions you can make to your art or society to define your mission as a musician or music industry player. In particular, he introduces the concept of “motivated skills” as a way for you to find your passions, figure out what you are best at, and discover what your mission is.
Bass trombonist and music teacher Michael Millar discusses the ways in which different teachers contributed to different aspects of his skill set, and explains how a diverse education can be greater than the sum of its parts.
In this segment from a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society Conference in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains one of the key concepts of his career-development method, as adapted from management guru Peter Drucker – how to define who your customer is. In this context, Millar does not focus on paying customers, but on encouraging musicians and music educators to figure out who they serve, and what they need to do to serve these people best in the course of their career.
Bass trombonist and music teacher Michael Millar explains why a musician has to be a great communicator as well as a great player in order to be successful.
In this segment from a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society Conference in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains one of the key concepts of his career-development method, as adapted from management guru Peter Drucker – how to define and measure “results” in the context of your career and life goals, and how to structure your master plan around your intended results.
In this segment of a roundtable discussion held at the College Music Society’s 2008 meeting in Atlanta, GA, panelist Michael Millar explains how the pursuit of excellence informs both his musical and entrepreneurial efforts, and how he has worked to incorporate entrepreneurial awareness and skills into his teaching.
Bass trombonist Michael Millar gives an overview of Southwest Chamber Music, explaining its history, mission, and vision. He goes on to describe the organization’s concert and recording activities, highlighting some of the unique projects that have distinguished the organization in recent years.
In this segment from a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society Conference in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains one of the key concepts of his career-development method, as adapted from management guru Peter Drucker – how to define career goals and objectives in the context of building a master plan for yourself.
In this segment of a roundtable discussion held at the College Music Society’s 2008 meeting in Atlanta, GA, panelist Michael Millar, Gary Beckman and Michael Drapkin take questions from the audience. Beckman digs deeper into his dissertation study of entrepreneurship education in college music programs - in particular his discovery of how badly faculty, deans and students all want to make curricular changes to embrace entrepreneurship – and the panel debate various strategies for implementing such a curriculum at a school, how to reach students, the merits of the current assessment culture in public education and how it affects incoming students, and much more.
In this segment of a presentation given at the 2008 College Music Society meeting in Atlanta, GA, Michael Millar explains what the public speaking organization Toastmasters can do to help you improve your presentation skills.
Bass trombonist and music teacher Michael Millar discusses how to use your unique skill set to create a niche in the music marketplace by learning your strengths, finding your audience, and effectively telling your story to that audience.
