University of Florida

Hailed by Gramophone Magazine for her “superlative artistry” and “effortless virtuosity and musical intelligence,” Crista MILLER is the Director of Music at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Texas, USA. There she led the Committee responsible for Martin Pasi’s landmark Opus 19 organ.  She conducts the professional Schola Cantorum, Cor Jesu, Coro Sagrado Corazón, the concert series and a growing staff post-pandemic.  She is founder and Artistic Director for the non-profit Amicis Cor Musica, seeking to connect choral and organ music to the broader community.  Her civic artistic collaborations have found her designing and conducting sacred polyphony in an underground water tank, the Buffalo Bayou Cistern; and pairing period artwork with organ music in Projections, a series funded by the Houston Arts Alliance. 

An active solo organist and member of the cohort East-West Organists, Dr. Miller has performed in 11 countries and 27 states of the USA.  Her double-CD Bonjour and Willkommen: A Franco-German Debut, features nearly 500 years of two national schools. Available from Acis Productions, this recording is noted by Choir and Organ and International Organists’ Review, as “ambitious, admirable and a very good advocate for the performer.” Her research on Middle Eastern elements in Naji Hakim’s music is published in the book Mystic Modern: The Music, Thought, and Legacy of Charles Tournemire and in ORGAN: Journal für die Orgel.  She is a sought-after conference presenter, organ consultant, executive board member and an advocate of contemporary composition.  An active adjudicator, her organ students have won competition and scholarship prizes in Texas, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Oklahoma. Many of her Co-Cathedral Music alumni now serve in leadership in significant church posts and in higher education. 

Dr. Miller earned the DMA in organ performance and the Sacred Music Diploma from the Eastman School of Music where she served the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) project under Hans Davidsson.  She earned the Master of Music from the University of Houston (Robert Bates), and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, studying organ with Gerald Frank.