Probably the question we are most consistently asked when we perform as Duo Renard is “Why do you call yourselves that?”  Well, it has to do with Robert Fuchs. As our first and most recent (in progress) recordings will attest, we have always felt a special affection for the work of this Austrian composer who wrote such beautiful music for the violin and the viola. We even wanted to name ourselves after him, but decided that Duo Fuchs just didn’t sound right – and to some people might even sound very wrong!!  So we decided to translate his name, which means fox, into the French Renard.  While remaining true to our original intent, we think this rolls off the tongue much better.

Mark Miller grew up in northern California, where he began playing the violin at the age of seven.  He studied with such artists as Yuval Yaron, Roman Totenberg and Jürgen Kussmaul, and served as assistant concertmaster in the Robert Schumann Chamber Orchestra of Düsseldorf, Germany, before joining the first violin section of the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn in 1990. Upon returning to the United States, Mark and his wife Ute were recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts ‘Rural Residencies’ chamber music grant. Mark Miller is concertmaster of the East Texas Symphony, and performs with the Fort Worth Symphony and Dallas Opera Orchestra. He also directs the string program at Texas A&M University - Commerce, where he is an Artist in Residence.

Ute Miller is a native of Frankfurt-Main, Germany.  She studied viola in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Boston, with teachers including Jürgen Kussmaul and Rafael Hillyer.  In addition to participating in several international chamber music festivals, she has played for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and in 1988 was appointed assistant principal violist of the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic. She is principal violist of the Dallas Opera Orchestra and East Texas Symphony, and performs with the Fort Worth and Dallas Symphony Orchestras.  Ute and her husband, violinist Mark Miller, have performed extensively in the United States and Germany as Duo Renard.  She is on the music faculty of Texas A&M University - Commerce as an Artist in Residence, where she and Mark Miller direct the string program and produce the chamber music series ‘Chamber Music in East Texas.’

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