Catherine Miller is the Artistic Director of Southern California’s newest elite opera competition, the Pasadena Vocal Competition. Catherine has been a music staff member of San Diego opera for 10 years, having worked most recently on productions of Madama Butterfly and La Traviata. In the 2026-2027 season, she will serve as principal pianist for the San Diego Opera Productions of Pagliacci and Carmen under the batons of Maestros Yves Abel and Louis Lohraseb. Appearances in recital with renowned soprano, Angel Blue have included iconic venues such as The Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall and The Ravinia Festival. Recent collaborations with tenor Nathan Granner and soprano Jamie Chamberlin have included Opera Orlando’s Opera on Park Concert Series, LA Made at the LA Public Library with Long Beach Opera, and the Community Concert Series in El Dorado, CA. Most recently, Catherine served as principal pianist for San Diego Opera’s ’24 production of Madama Butterfly and the LA Philharmonic’s production of Fidelio with the Deaf West Theater. In the 2025 season, she will serve as principal pianist for San Diego Opera’s production of La Traviata under the baton of Maestro Yves Abel and North Carolina Opera’s production of Florencia en el Amazonas with maestro Joseph Mechavich.

For Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, she served as the principal pianist on productions of Die Walküre Act 3, Aida, Rigoletto, and Turandot as part of several Hollywood Bowl summer seasons as well as productions of The Tempest and Meredith Monk’s Atlas, both performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall. For the LA Phil, she was principal pianist on productions of The Tempest and Meredith Monk’s Atlas, both performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Catherine has served on the music staff of the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, and in Italy at the Lucca Opera Theater and the Spoleto Festival. She has also worked with the Santa Fe Opera, the San Diego Opera Ensemble, and is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera.

A sought-after vocal competition pianist, Ms. Miller regularly plays for the Loren L Zachary Society VOcal Competition, The Laffont Competition of the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles District and the Palm Springs Vocal Competition, where she is also on the Artistic Committee.

As an educator, Ms. Miller is on the staff of the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices under the direction of Renowned mezzo soprano Dolora Zajick. She has also been musica staff at the International Vocal Arts Academy in Payerbach, Austria and the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. Catherine holds degrees from both USC and The Juilliard School, and was also honored to be a Fulbright Scholar at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.