- Nickname
- Mickle
- Best known for his role as Musical Director and Theme Composer for Paramount's long-running TV music/variety series, "Solid Gold" hosted by Dionne Warwick, Andy Gibb & Marilyn McCoo, for composing the 1984 Winter Olympics opening theme song, "Just A Dream Away" sung by John Denver, and for producing & arranging a duet of "I Say A Little Prayer" for Dionne Warwick & Aretha Franklin on the 2021 Rhino Records 4-CD boxed set titled, "ARETHA".
Michael Miller ("Mickle") first showed promise in the music arena during high school by writing an arrangement called "Superstar Medley" in 1973 for guest artist and famed trumpeter, Bud Brisbois. The arrangement was a big success and, as a result, Bud introduced Michael to Henry Mancini who offered to become his mentor.
The following September, Michael was selected to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival in the California All Star High School Jazz Band where he was a featured trumpet soloist and composer. Legendary jazz trumpeter and lifelong hero of Michael's - Clark Terry - was a guest artist at the concert. Also, at the performance, Michael dedicated his composition "Something We Knew About Monterey '73" to the founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, Jimmy Lyons.
Michael then started college at UCLA and, within a year, he became the assistant musical director for the the last two seasons of the Carol Burnett Show and many others, and then was hired to write the theme song and be the musical director of the entire run of Paramount TV's, "Solid Gold" (1980-1989), which was comprised of about 400 shows. His "Solid Gold Theme" started and ended every single episode. He also composed the theme song for the 1982-83 Paramount TV series, "Madame's Place".
One of the most special musical experiences Michael had was composing and arranging the opening theme song "Just a Dream Away" for the 1984 Winter Olympics, which John Denver performed while standing in the snow of Sarajevo.
Shortly afterward, the well known opera tenor, Placido Domingo, asked Michael to arrange & conduct his recording of "Just a Dream Away" for his album, "Save Your Nights For Me", and then Dionne Warwick recorded it as well.
In 1990, Michael decided to follow another one of his dreams, so he went to live on various islands in the Pacific: Fiji, Maui, and New Zealand. He continues to make frequent trips to Los Angeles to work on various recording projects, as well as being a guest speaker at Hollywood super-agent, Ken Kragen's UCLA class, "Strategies for Stardom".
On July 30, 2021, a duet that Michael produced for Aretha Franklin & Dionne Warwick of "I Say A Little Prayer" was re-released by Rhino Records as part of a 4-CD Box Set entitled, "ARETHA".
One of Michael's greatest joys has been being able to give his time to mentor talented young people, musically or academically, sometimes spending 3-4 hours every day for 7 or more years at a time to help an individual gain entry into national honor bands and/or earn full scholarships to their top-choice colleges. One of the most successful recipients of Michael's guidance is trumpeter Josh Shpak, who, through Michael's introduction, became the protégé of Clark Terry and is now a very successful performer, songwriter and producer in Los Angeles.
Regarding Michael's personal life: although he was given two separate terminal cancer diagnoses during his life due to the effects (and aftereffects) of a pesticide spray drift, he surprised his doctors by completely recovering both times -- once in 1983, which took 7 years to fully heal, and a recurrence in 2019 (which unfortunately included severe reactions to a prescribed medication, AMBIEN, that brought about a whole new set of challenges). But, he is so very grateful for the compassion and empathy shown to him by so many wonderful people, and for the miracles that made it possible for him to continue making music and mentoring (and cheering on) young people of all ages toward positive paths and productive futures.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Greene
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