Max Burdorf Miller

Max Burdorf Miller was an American organist, composer, conductor, and teacher whose career was closely identified with Boston University. A California native, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Redlands and completed a doctorate at Boston University in 1955. His advanced musical formation included study in Vienna with organist Anton Heiller and work on Arnold Schoenberg's Variations on a Recitative under Schoenberg's guidance. Miller joined Boston University's faculties in the College of Fine Arts and School of Theology, eventually serving the university for forty-two years until his retirement in 1991.

At Boston University, Miller was university organist, music director at Marsh Chapel, professor of organ, director of the Master of Sacred Music program, and conductor of the Seminary Singers. He was a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists and became widely known to organists through his practical Ask Uncle Max column. He also played a central role in the development of Boston University's Organ Library, whose annual Max B. Miller Book Award continues to bear his name. Miller composed MARSH CHAPEL in 1983 for F. Bland Tucker's Awake, O Sleeper, Rise from Death; the tune was copyrighted in 1984 and later paired editorially with Dudley-Smith's hymn in The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989. He died on January 5, 2013, at the age of eighty-five.