Faculty

Profile

James Millar served as as Director of Choirs and Orchestras at Tenafly High School in Tenafly, NJ from 2003 to 2024. He remains active in the musical life of Tenafly and beyond as a conductor, chamber musician and accompanist. He serves as Music Director at the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly, and has been an organist and choirmaster at various churches since 1986. He is the founder of Summer Music in Tuscany, an annual two-week festival for singers and instrumentalists in Sarteano, Italy since 2015. He conducted the 2022 New Jersey All State Orchestra, the 2024 North Jersey Intermediate Region Orchestra, the 2017 New Jersey Honors Chamber Orchestra, 2016 North Jersey Intermediate Region Orchestra, the 2015 Central Jersey Region Orchestra and the 2013 North Jersey Intermediate Region Treble Chorus. Mr Millar has directed dozens of high school musicals, both on the stage and from the pit. In 1998 he founded the North Jersey Summer Theater Workshop, which continues to this day. From 1995 to 2003 he was the instrumental music teacher at Passaic Valley High School in Little Falls, NJ, where he taught marching band, concert band, jazz band, and directed the musicals. At Tenafly High School his responsibilities included directing three choirs and two orchestras in addition to the Madrigal Singers, the annual Spring Musical, the Chamber Music club and the A Cappella club. Mr Millar holds Bachelor of Music (piano) and Master of Music (orchestral conducting) degrees from Northwestern University. Further studies include the Aspen Summer Music School, the Goldovsky Opera Institute, the Mannes Opera Workshop with Fred Popper, and privately with Carl Bamberger, retired, of the Mannes Conservatory of Music. Further information can be found at www.SummerMusicinTuscany.org .