Shirley Mier

Shirley Mier is a Twin Cities-based composer, music director and music educator. She writes music of all kinds, in the theatre, educational and concert world. Orchestra works include the suite Of Lakes and Legends: Scenes from White Bear Lake (written for the Century Chamber Orchestra), and Visages, a song cycle for soprano and orchestra.

Concert band works include commissions from Minnesota school bands and community bands, and several publications and award-winning works. Theme and Deviations for Band won the Fifth Annual H. Robert Reynolds’ National Wind Ensemble Composers Competition and was performed at Carnegie Hall in 2004. Maiden Voyage placed as a finalist in the first Frank Ticheli Composition Contest in 2006 and is published by Grand Mesa. Works published by Alfred Music include the concert band pieces Forge Ahead! and Song of the Wind: An Aztec Legend, as well as several educational piano duets.

Theatre works include children’s musicals commissioned from Stages Theatre in Hopkins, MN, scores for Shakespeare plays, and music for Greek tragedies. Her theatre music has been heard at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Shakespeare in the Park, The Playwrights’ Center, and many other stages across the U.S. and Canada. Published musicals include Twelve Dancing Princesses, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and Madeline’s Christmas (Dramatic Publishing).

Dr. Mier earned a B.A. in Music at Grinnell College and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Minnesota. She resides in Hudson, WI (near the Twin Cities), and has taught at Century College, a community college in White Bear Lake, MN, since 2007. She is a member of ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, and the Dramatists Guild.