Dr. Joe Millea is currently a Lecturer of Music at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas where he teaches applied percussion, the University Percussion Ensemble, the percussion methods courses and directs the Bearkat Drumline. He is also a member of the Sugar and Carbs percussion duo and is playing with the Tandem Collective chamber Group. Additionally, Joe also teaches percussion in the Montgomery Independent School District in Montgomery, Texas. In 2013 and 2014 Joe studied at the Royal College of Music in London, England performing and researching the marimba. At the Royal College, he was supported by a Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship. Previously, Joe served as a Faculty member at Veritas Preparatory Academy, Collins College (Phoenix, AZ), National American University (Brooklyn Center, MN) teaching courses in music appreciation, digital audio, music theory, music history, music business, and music composition. From 2010 to 2013 Joe was the principal Percussionist and Timpanist with the Scottsdale Arts Orchestra in Scottsdale, AZ, under the direction of Brett Robison. He was also a percussion instructor and arranger with the Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band and Director of Instrumental Music at La Casa de Cristo Church in Scottsdale, AZ.
A strong proponent of progressive music, Joe seeks to find new ways of exploring sounds through traditional, extended, and electronic practices. Currently, he is working with the effects of electronics sounds on various acoustic percussion instruments.
Having performed in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, Joe enjoys an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician. He has been a guest artist at the MN Percussion Association Day of Percussion, the International Percussion Seminar in Adria, Italy, the International Horn Symposium Southwest regional, Southern Utah University, Lamar University and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy in Lubbock, Texas. As a chamber musician Joe has taken part in the 1st Festival of Percussion Ensembles in San Jose, Costa Rica, the NonClassical: Pioneer of Percussion festival in London, England, the Minneapolis “Carifest” of Caribbean music and culture, and the Balance-Unbalance conference on climate and acoustic ecology in Tempe, Arizona.
Joe has also performed jazz, world, classical, and contemporary traditions with many chamber groups throughout the country including the Phoenix Symphony, Mill Ave Chamber Players, Salt River Brass, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra, Classical Revolution Phoenix, Struck Percussion Ensemble, Solis Camerata, Phoenix Artlink, the Seven Corners Quartet, and the Phoenix Symphony B-Sharp Homeless Initiative.
Joe received his Bachelor's degree in Music Performance and Music Education from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Master's and D.M.A Degrees in Music Performance from Arizona State University. His primary teachers are Fernando Meza, J.B. Smith, Daniella Ganeva, Peter Kogan, Earl Yowell, Mark Sunkett, Simone Mancuso, Brian Duffy, Matt Kettlehut, Dom Moio and Phil Hey. Joe is an endorser of Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets and Black Swamp Percussion.