Dr. Ron Miller serves the Peninsula Youth Orchestras as Composer-in-residence, Boardmember, and Webmaster.   He has degrees in math and music from UC Santa Barbara, where he was a faculty member for several years.  He has lived in the Bay Area since 1985, and has performed with and composed for the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra since 1987.  The PYO has performed The 49ers! (Composed for the PYO in 2003), Aurora Australis (Composed for the PYO in 2001), Overture to a Summer Afternoon (composed for the Peninsula Symphony in 1992) and Labyrinthian Dances (composed for the Peninsula Symphony in 1994). The PYO premiered The Forest of Tears in March, 2005, and performed it in France and Spain during the summer of 2005. The Peninsula Young Artists performed the Overture to a Summer Afternoon in Carnegie Hall in 2004, Aurora Australis in March, 2005 as part of the "Musical Tour of the Continents" concert, and The Forest of Tears, in Salzburg and Vienna in 2006. For PYO's 10th season, Dr. Miller composed a special 10th-anniversary fanfare, Antiphonies, performed by PYO and PYA at the November 2006 concert, and Illuminations, a set of variations on Hungarian Gregorian Chant, for the June Concert and the summer 2007 tour.
In 2008, the PYA performed Jasmine Bouquet, a Fantasy based on the Chinese folk tune "Jasmine Flower," during their tour of China.
The 2009 tour of Europe featured the premiere of Kiva Dances, a piece which incorporates Native American flute into the orchestra.