DMSO at Home Live: Erin Brooker-Miller

Erin Brooker-Miller is a Classical and Irish harpist with a passion for orchestral and chamber playing.

Erin is the Principal Harpist of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. With the orchestra, she was featured as a soloist performing the Mozart Flute & Harp Concerto with then Principal Flutist Kayla Burgraff in October 2018. In addition, she was featured on the orchestra’s chamber series “Spotlight at the Temple” in 2018 and 2019.  Erin has performed with many additional orchestras including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Asheville Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, and Quad City Symphony.  She has participated in the Round Top Music Festival, Fresh Inc Festival, and Saratoga Harp Colony.

Happiest playing music with others, Erin was a founding member of the flute, harp, and percussion trio, Archaea Tree Ensemble, a member of the pop harp quartet, HarpCore4, and has performed in an Irish harp and violin duo with her brother, Brennan Brooker, since 2004. They now perform as Goodfoot with her husband, Andy Miller on bodhran. Passionate about working collaboratively with composers, in 2015, Archaea Tree Ensemble hosted a weeklong festival retreat called Troublesome Gap. The weeklong festival invited five composers from across the United States to write new works for the trio and culminated in a "standing room only" concert premiering the five new compositions.

Representing the United States, Erin competed and won numerous awards in traditional Irish music competitions in solo harp, duo, trio, and Grúpaí Cheoil categories at regional and All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoils between 2002 and 2010. Most notably, she was a member of the Grand Prize winning Grúpaí Cheoil in 2002, the first time since 1957 that an ensemble from outside Ireland won that category and won the Bronze medal for solo harp in 2007. She was named an Alternate for a prestigious Fulbright Grant to Ireland in 2014.

Also an accomplished Arts Administrator, Erin served as the Executive Director of the USA International Harp Competition for five years leading the organization to two of the most successful competitions in its thirty year history. She currently works as the Registrar for the Milwaukee Ballet School & Academy.

Erin received a Master’s degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor’s degree as a Chancellor’s Scholar from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Her principal classical teachers include Susann McDonald, Dr. Ann Yeung, Elizabeth Hainen, and Ayako Watanabe; her principal Irish teachers include Eileen Gannon, Marta Cook, and Grainne Hambly.  Erin lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, percussionist Andy Miller, and divides her time between Milwaukee and Des Moines, IA.