Georgia Mills
Week 4: July 29-August 2
Georgia Markakis Mills is a Greek-American conductor, pianist, and maker of classical and contemporary music.
Showcasing versatility across orchestral repertoire, opera, and new music, Georgia has conducted acclaimed ensembles and collaborated with such artists as Julia Wolfe, Chris Thile, George Lewis, Nico Muhly, Augusta Read Thomas, Dylan Mattingly, Darian Donovan Thomas, Aoife O’Donovan, Modney, Louis Andriessen, Judd Greenstein, and Courtney Bryan. Upcoming engagements include Guest Conductor with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of string works, Guest Conductor with Present Music in a live music-to-film concert of Wu Tsang’s Moby Dick; or, The Whale scored by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, and a concert with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Coleridge-Taylor, Ravel, and Dvořák. In later months Georgia will lead the Metropolis Ensemble in a concert of Erik Hall’s adaptation of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and collaborate with Ballet Collective at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
In recent months, Georgia has led the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, conducted the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of works by Stravinsky, Copland, Nardi, and Mozart, led the New Conductors Orchestra in Ravel’s Ma mere l’Oye in New York, NY, and conducted the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Beethoven, Mazzoli, and Stravinsky in Williamstown, MA. She led the award-winning new music group Alarm Will Sound as their first Guest Conductor in a program of premieres along with Steve Reich’s “Radio Rewrite,” and conducted the International Contemporary Ensemble in their program featuring works by Courtney Bryan for the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival.
Highlights from the past year include serving as Guest Conductor of the Grossman Ensemble, Cover Conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Cover Conductor with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Guest Conductor of Contemporaneous. Georgia appeared as the Cover Conductor for the premiere of Dylan Mattingly’s opera Stranger Love presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Associate Music Director/Assistant Conductor for the premiere of Judd Greenstein’s opera A Marvelous Order with NOW Ensemble. In past years, Georgia conducted Nico Muhly’s world premiere ballet Third Bird, directed by Isaac Mizrahi and John Heginbotham, with Ensemble Signal in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process performing arts series. She also conducted the premiere studio recording of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe’s Oxygen, presented by Carnegie Hall, and served as Assistant Conductor for the premiere of George Lewis’ Tales of the Traveller at the TIME:SPANS festival.
During her studies at the Eastman School of Music, Georgia was the Assistant Conductor of the Eastman Opera Theatre under direction of Timothy Long in staged productions of Kate Soper’s Here be Sirens and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Georgia has held numerous artistic direction and arts administration positions, including: Assistant Conductor of the Eastman Opera Theatre; Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Summer Opera; Vice President of OSSIA New Music; Co-Artistic Director of the Pulsing & Shaking Festival; Administrative Associate with The Knights orchestra in Brooklyn; Publicity Assistant for Dotdotdot Music; and Production Assistant with Metropolis Ensemble. Georgia received her undergraduate degree in piano performance from New York University in the studio of Eduardus Halim.
Georgia completed her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Conducting at the Eastman School of Music in May 2024, when she was awarded the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize and was nominated for the Lecture Recital Prize in recognition of her research on micropolyphonic transformations in the music of György Ligeti. At Eastman, she served as Assistant Conductor of the Musica Nova Ensemble under the direction of conductor Brad Lubman. Georgia held graduate teaching awards in conducting and music theory at Eastman, and was an Adjunct Professor of Orchestration at Roberts Wesleyan University.