Praised by critics for their “expressive grace and finesse” and playing that is “vibrant and focused,” the MILLER PORFIRIS DUO has been delighting audiences since 2005.  Anton Miller, violin and Rita Porfiris, viola first met over 20 years ago while studying at the Juilliard School. Their musical lineage can be traced back to famed pedagogues and musicians Ivan Galamian. Leopold Auer, Franz Kneisel, Joseph Joachim, and Josef Bohm, close friend and collaborator of Ludwig van Beethoven. In keeping with this distinguished pedigree, the duo has given concerts and masterclasses at festivals and institutions across the United States, Central America, and Europe.

Committed to expanding the repertoire for violin and viola, in 2010 they commissioned and recorded 3 new works for violin and viola by Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen, Argentinean composer Mario Diaz Gavier, and American composer Libby Larsen for their debut CD “Five Postcards.” Their second CD, titled “Eight Pieces” (music of Bruch and Gliere), released in 2013, was deemed a “fine new recording” and praised for its “wonderfully smooth ensemble work”  by Gramophone and Audible Audiophile Magazines. Rita also received accolades for her transcription for violin and viola of Reinhold Gliere's Eight Pieces Op. 39. Highlights of recent seasons included sold-out performances of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, Bruch Double Concerto with Lincoln's Symphony and a performance of the rarely performed Arthur Benjamin Romantic Fantasy for Violin and Viola with the Concert Artists of Baltimore.

Since giving his Carnegie Hall concerto debut in 1992, American violinist ANTON MILLER has appeared throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and pedagogue. He has performed over fifty violin concertos with a number of orchestras on three different continents.  His most recent solo release on Naxos features the Kurt Weill Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble. Mr. Miller has also been concertmaster for a number of orchestras including almost thirty years with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Festival Orchestra. On the violin and chamber music faculty at the Hartt School and New York University, he previously has been on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, Lawrence University, and Swarthmore College. Anton completed his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School studying with renown violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay and chamber music with Felix Galimir and members of the Juilliard Quartet. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree from Indiana University as a student of Franco Gulli. He has been a member of the Con Brio Ensemble for almost 30 seasons.

Violist RITA PORFIRIS has performed in major concert halls and music festivals worldwide both as a chamber musician and as a soloist. She has been on the faculties of New York University, the University of Houston Mooresʼ School of Music, Florida International University, and the Harlem School for the Arts in New York. In her former 20 year-long career as an orchestral musician in top American and German orchestras, 15 of which were spent with the Houston Symphony, she worked under some of the most recognized conductors of the 20-21 Centuries, including Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christoph Eschenbach. Rita received both her BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School, studying with William Lincer. She is currently the Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of Chamber Music at the Hartt School, and was pleased to join the Con Brio Ensemble in 2011.