Monday, June 9th

Lisa Raposa Millar maintains a varied career as a piano recitalist, adjudicator, and instructor. Renowned for the clarity and tonal beauty of her playing, she has appeared in esteemed venues including Koerner Hall, the Toronto Convention Centre, the Gardiner Museum, Heliconian Hall, and the former Gallery 345. In previous seasons, she performed in The Piano Lunaire, a series dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and served as a rehearsal pianist with the Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto (ICOT) on the opera The Journey: Notes of Hope featuring soprano Zorana Sadiq.

Since 2008, she and her husband Gregory Millar have presented lectures and concerts as the Millar Piano Duo, captivating audiences with their vibrant interpretations. Their repertoire includes one-piano, four-hand and two-piano music by Barber, Brahms, Dvořák, Gershwin, Mozart, Milhaud, Poulenc, Schubert, American composer Christopher Kies, and Canadian composer Frank Horvat, on whose "Me to We" album they appear. Notably, their 2023 performance of Rhapsody in Blue at the Music on the Hill festival in Rhode Island was performed to a full house.

Raposa Millar has written for American Music Teacher magazine and co-runs a private teaching studio in Toronto. She began playing the piano as a four-year-old by her mother's side in Tiverton, Rhode Island and commenced lessons with JoAnn Mello at the age of seven. She taught her first students as a teenaged undergraduate and for over two decades has enriched the musical lives of hundreds of students, both as a teacher and collaborative pianist. Before relocating to Canada, she earned a BA from the University of New Hampshire, an MM from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (where she twice received the Eugenie May Award for Outstanding Accomplishment as a Solo and Collaborative Pianist), and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music, where she was honoured with an Excellence in Accompanying Award. Her principal teachers included Arlene Kies, Estela Olevsky, Jean Barr, and Nelita True, and she participated in numerous master classes with visiting artists.

Outside of music, Lisa ran her first full marathon in 2024 and is currently training for the Niagara Ultra Marathon in June.