Greg Milliren

Greg Milliren, the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate principal flutist since 2009, has also performed as guest principal flute with the Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony. Additionally, he has appeared with the major orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, National, Colorado and Jacksonville. He performed with the Russian National Orchestra during their tour to Minnesota, with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. He regularly plays flute and piccolo with the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota, and has also played with the Arizona Music Festival.

An experienced chamber musician, Milliren has been on the Orchestra’s chamber music series frequently and has performed for many chamber music series across the Twin Cities and the U.S. Prior to moving to Minnesota, he was a producer and performer for The Definiens Project, a Los Angeles-based group which programmed inventive contemporary chamber music concerts in relaxed and accessible settings. He performed Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto in 2012 with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and has been a featured soloist with several community orchestras in the Twin Cities.

As an educator, he is in demand locally and nationally as a teacher and audition coach, and has given performances and masterclasses at the University of Southern California, the Colburn School, Idyllwild Arts Academy, St. Olaf College, Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Eau Claire, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Duluth, and the MacPhail Center for Music. His students have won local competitions and have gone on to their own careers in music. He has performed many times for the pre-school, kindergarten and elementary age audiences of the Kinder Konzerts presented by FRIENDS of the Minnesota Orchestra. He is also a frequent volunteer with the Minnesota Orchestra’s many internal working committees.

Growing up in the Milwaukee area, Milliren began studying piano as a 6-year-old and picked up the flute at age 10. His experience with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony sparked his love of performing with orchestras and set him on the path to music as a profession. He first performed with the Minnesota Orchestra as a substitute musician while earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota. He subsequently completed a master’s degree at the University of Southern California, not thinking at the time he would end up back in Minnesota as a member of the Orchestra a few years later. He credits his parents, grandmother, and his many music teachers and mentors for helping him succeed.

Milliren and his husband make their home in St. Louis Park with their rescue pit bull, Sadie.