20-year-old violist Jamie Miles is a third-year student at both ANAM and the University of Melbourne (BMus), studying with Caroline Henbest. Jamie was principal viola of the Australian Youth Orchestra and is the current principal viola of the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, Jamie was the winner (Richard Mills Prize) of the Melbourne Recital Centre Bach Competition and the only Australian competitor in the prestigious ARD (German Broadcasting Association) International Music Competition in Munich; one of 43 selected from 153 global applicants. In 2024 he was a finalist in the Great Romantics competition, and in 2022 he was awarded 2nd prize in the 3MBS Victorian Young Performer of the Year Awards.
Jamie has performed with the Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras as part of ANAM’s side-by-side program. He has performed various viola concerti with the Surrey Hills, Maroondah and Preston Symphony Orchestras, including the world premiere of Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata arranged for Viola and Orchestra by Ruth Lomon.
A keen composer, Jamie has won several local composition competitions, including the Australian Guild of Music’s “UNLOCK’D” competition for high-school-aged composers. His ‘Suite for Solo Viola’ has recently been included in the AMEB syllabus for Certificate of Performance level.
On the non-musical side of things, Jamie loves playing cricket for Middle Park CC and supporting his beloved Geelong Cats!
Jamie plays an 1899 Béla Szepessy viola, generously on loan from Thomas Chawner.
FROM: VIC. Lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.
Jamie is supported by ANAM Syndicate donors Andrew Boyle, Jannie Brown, Barbara Friday, Merilyn and the late David Howorth, Pam Montgomery, James Turnbull.
Photo by Pia Johnson