Keys and Bridges Duo

Prof. Billie Feather is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjoist, bassist who originally hails from Johnstown, PA. Raised in the beautiful Pennsylvania mountains and surrounded by a family of avid music lovers, Billie’s love of performing music in all forms was fostered.

In her sixth grade year, Billie began saving for her first guitar by doing odd jobs and begging her parents for music lessons. Her parents finally gave into their daughter’s pestering for lessons and it happily grew into a lifelong passion of music performance and songwriting.

For her senior year in high school, Billie was accepted into the prestigious music conservatory at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Classical Guitar Performance and remained there for her college studies. During her years at UNCSA, Billie was a guest classical guitarist in The Carolina Wind Symphony and has been able to perform all over North Carolina as both a solo artist and in classical guitar ensembles. After graduating in 2006, Billie expanded her musical studies by learning the double bass, electric bass, banjo, and mandolin.

After graduation, Billie founded a private teaching studio in Winston-Salem, NC and began performing in several local bands – most notably the bo-stevens (a North Carolina honky-tonk band) and The Darnell Woodies (an old-time Appalachian punk string band). During her tenure in these bands, Billie was able to tour the United States and Europe.

While in Winston-Salem, she began studying stringed instrument repair at Separk Music. Eventually, Billie was asked to take a position in Chapel Hill, NC as instrument repair technician at Wes Lambe Guitars. Currently, Billie operates her own stringed instrument repair shop in Durham, NC.

Eventually, Billie began to hear the call of academia once more and enrolled in North Carolina Central University for a second undergraduate degree with a focus in jazz guitar and arranging.

Graduating with honors, she was invigorated to share her love of jazz with her community and students by starting a local Beginner’s Jazz Jam and a Suzuki Guitar Jazz Curriculum to keep jazz traditions alive for the next generation.

Merging her love of both classical and jazz, Billie returned to the UNC School of the Arts where she earned Master’s Degree in Guitar Performance and a Professional Artist Certificate in Recording Engineering and Guitar.

An active performer, Billie can be found in a variety of musical groups and settings. See more about Billie’s bands in the “Projects” page, her songwriting examples in the “Songwriting” page, and recordings featuring her musical work on the “Recordings” page.

You can find Billie at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro teaching guitar as part of their Popular Music and Technology Program. Her previous appointments include Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington where she taught Group Guitar/UCORE Classes and Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina where she was the college, community music school, and Suzuki guitar professor.

Billie’s performances have been hailed as “spectacular, athletic, and… narrative and epic rather than simply a recreation of recorded work” and a “live music find and stage presence of the first order and deserves the stellar career that is clearly in front of her” by the Camel City Dispatch blog.

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Dr. Courtney Miller is Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches oboe, chamber music, reed making, and graduate seminars. Before coming to the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, she served on faculty at the University of Iowa in Iowa, Boston College in Massachusetts, and Ashland University in Ohio. 

A highly regarded performer and pedagogue, Dr. Miller tours as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. Dr. Miller is a versatile artist devoted to performing new compositions and lesser-known works alongside standard repertoire.  Her 2019 album Portuguese Perspectives introduces a collection of world-premiere recordings for the oboe by Portuguese composers and includes several new commissions by Miller. This album and her 2015 release, Modern Fairy Tales, are available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. American Record Guide praises her “seamless consistency in the various registers of the oboe…and sensitive phrasing and articulation.” Fanfare Magazine hails Courtney Miller as “a performer of considerable skill, with an unfailingly lovely sound, abundant technical ability, and a special gift for turning notes into poetry.”   

An experienced orchestral musician, Miller has performed in many orchestras in the United States, such as the Chicago Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Quad Cities Symphony, and the Jacksonville Symphony. Dr. Miller performs as Principal Oboe with the North Carolina Opera.

 In addition to collaborations within the field of music, Dr. Miller has a flair for interdisciplinary work. She has collaborated with hip-hop dancer Ernest “EKnock” Phillips, belly dancer Janelle Issis, and most recently, choreographer and dancer Kristin Marrs.  

 Dr. Miller has authored articles published in the Double Reed Journal and the Journal of the American Viola Society. She has also presented recitals and papers at the College Music Society’s Northeast Regional Conference. Dr. Miller performs regularly at the International Double Reed Society’s annual conferences. In 2017, she was a featured artist at the first international conference of the Associação Brasileira de Palhetas Duplas (Brazilian Double Reed Society or ABPD). 

Courtney Miller has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University, a Master of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from Florida State University. Her primary teachers include John Ferrillo, John Mack, and Eric Ohlsson.