Rhendle Michael Millen received a Bachelor of Music degree from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), a Master of Music from the University of Alabama, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Memphis State. For thirty-six years, he was on the faculty of St. Mary’s Episcopal School for girls in Memphis, Tennessee where he conducted the instrumental ensembles and taught Instrumental Music, Advanced Placement Music Theory, Honors Humanities I and II, and served as Chair of the Performing Arts department.
Additionally, he has performed with a number of regional orchestras including the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Jackson (TN) Symphony Orchestra, The Paducah (KY) Symphony Orchestra and the Germantown (TN) Symphony Orchestra. From 1990-2010 he served as the Director of Music for Shady Grove Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
His honors and awards include the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools’ Hubert Smothers Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008, United States Department of Education Presidential Scholars Program Distinguished Teacher award in 2006, and commendations from the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, The University of Chicago, and Stanford University for excellence in teaching. In 2009, Dr. Millen was honored to be the first male to ever be awarded the St. Mary’s Gold Cross.
A former president of the Memphis Composer’s Alliance, there have been numerous performances of his works throughout the United States at such venues as the American Society of Composer’s Regional Conference in Miami, Florida, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the Flute Festival ’87 in Nagadoches, Texas. At the University of Memphis, he was three times awarded the Johannes Smit Composition Award and twice the Naiomi Haimson Composition Prize; at the University of Alabama he received the Mu Phi Epsilon Composition Award. In 1988, Dr. Millen was named the Greater Memphis Music Teachers’ Association Composer of the Year.
Bartlett Community Concert Band 