Miles Canaday

Miles Canaday is Assistant Professor of Music at Whitman College, where he is the director of Choral Activities. Miles served as Visiting Director of Choirs at William & Mary, and was previously the Assistant Conductor for the Eastman Chorale and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, and directed the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Community Chorus in Geneva, NY. Before his work in western New York, he conducted collegiate, church and community ensembles across Colorado, including the Metropolitan State University of Denver Women's Chamber Choir, the Laudamus Chamber Chorale of Fort Collins, and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Choirs in Aurora.

Miles began singing as a treble in the Choir of Men and Boys at Christ Church Greenwich, CT at age nine, and studied voice, solfeggio, piano and music theory with Joseph Leniado-Chira. He has since continued to sing in ensembles, including the Yale Schola Cantorum, St. Martin's Chamber Choir (Denver), the Colorado Bach Ensemble, and various Eastman choral groups.

Miles graduated with a B.A. in music with honors from Harvard College, where he studied conducting with Jameson Marvin and Federico Cortese and was President of the Harvard Glee Club. With a keen interest in early 20th century music, he completed a senior thesis focusing on the creation of cacophony using rhythmic and tonal patterns in Stravinsky's Petrushka. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Dr. William Weinert. Miles completed a doctoral research project on the unpublished choral works of Spanish Renaissance composer Sebastián de Vivanco, and was the recipient of the Walter Hagen Prize in Conducting. Miles received a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music, studying with Profs. Marguerite Brooks and Jeffrey Douma.