​Elissa Miller-Kay

Award-winning pianist Dr. Elissa Miller-Kay has performed in cities throughout North America and Southeast Asia. As a concerto soloist, she has appeared with the Mississauga Symphony, the Oakville Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, the York Symphony, and the Greater Toronto Philharmonic. Recital engagements include performances at Steinway Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Bohemian National Hall in New York City; the Beethoven Club in Memphis; Markham Theater in Markham, Ontario; and the Goethe Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2009, Dr. Miller-Kay was the first prize winner of the International Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition in Memphis, TN. In 2006, she won the Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award, a scholarship given annually to an outstanding young Canadian Musician. Her performance of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, Op. 110 in a master class with Seymour Bernstein was featured in the documentary Seymour: An Introduction, directed by Ethan Hawke.

In addition to performance, Dr. Miller-Kay is a passionate educator. From 2016 to 2021 she was a lecturer at the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music in Bangkok, Thailand, where she taught piano, chamber music, music history, and research methodology. Dr. Miller-Kay has also previously taught at the New School for Music Study in Kingston, New Jersey and at New York University, where she was an adjunct instructor of piano and keyboard harmony.

​Dr. Miller-Kay holds a PhD in Piano Studies from New York University, as well as degrees in piano performance from Oberlin College (Bachelor of Music) and Mannes College (Master of Music), and a Licentiate Diploma with First Class Honors from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Miller-Kay has published papers on Beethoven reception and nineteenth-century piano performance practices. She has also published a beginner piano method book, “Piano, So Fun!” (เปียโนสนุกจัง) with Surachoke Satraphai. In support of music education, Dr. Miller-Kay and Mr. Satraphai have made this book freely available online (see pianosofun.com).

In addition to music, Elissa has a passion for science and mathematics. Prior to attending Oberlin, she studied biochemistry at the University of Toronto. She was a National Biology Scholar in the University of Toronto National Biology Competition in 1999. She won a Regent’s In-Course Scholarship, was a Dean’s List Scholar, and was the recipient of the Gollop Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry.