Miles Vandiver
Miles Vandiver is the Jazz Drum Set Instructor, Director of the Music Business Program, and Coordinator of Recording Activities for Southern Illinois University. Miles began playing drums at a very early age. His father Larry Vandiver is a professional drummer in the St. Louis area and one of Miles’s very first drum instructors and biggest influences. By the time Miles was in the 8th grade, he was already playing professionally and performing in the college-level jazz combos at SIUE. This is when his interest in the recording industry started to grow, and he began working as a recording engineer in studios at this time as well. Miles received his BM in jazz performance and his MM in music with an emphasis on jazz at SIUE. Here he studied with such esteemed musicians and instructors such as Steve Strayhorn, Roger Guth, Rick Haydon, Reggie Thomas, Brett Stamps, and Tom and Ray Kennedy. Another instructor in Miles’s vitae is professional drummer Dave Weckl.
As a young drummer, Miles recorded and toured with groups such as Commonwealth and Vargas Swing, which received regional and national success. In recent years, he has performed week-long engagements at St. Louis’ premier jazz club Jazz at the Bistro with Eric Reed, Carla Cook, Bucky Pizzarelli, Anne Hampton Calloway, Mary Stallings, and Laverne Butler. He has also recorded and performed with Tom Kennedy, Ray Kennedy, Brian Owens, Reggie and Mardra Thomas, Harry Allen, Howard Alden, Mulgrew Miller, Tom Scott, and Frank Morgan. He performed with the world-renowned St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as a guest artist with Grammy award-winning artist Debby Boone.
As a musician, Miles strives to have the ability and expertise to perform in a wide variety of styles of music on a professional level. His versatility of styles assimilates his goal to be able to thrive in every genre of music. His mission as a music educator is to train young musicians to not only become versatile professionals but also creative musicians. With Miles’s experience of teaching classes in the history of jazz and the history of recording, he ties the history of music to his musical instruction. As a recording engineer, Miles specializes in capturing acoustic material in conducive acoustic environments and combining analog and digital recording techniques and mediums.
Currently, Miles is an active clinician and guest artist as well as a freelance engineer and producer. He is featured on national and international recordings and is very active in major music markets as a freelance professional studio musician. He is currently the drummer for the Peter Mayer Group and Mailboat recording artist Brendan Mayer.
