Born in Toledo in 1979, he graduated from Madrid Royal Higher Conservatory and Sibelius Academy (Finland), with professors like Guillermo González, Ludmil Angelov, Hanna Aho or Emilio Molina. He has also completed studies in historicist interpretation in Spain, Canada and USA, and also audiovisual media composition. Hehas also received advice from artists like Larissa Gergieva, Paul Badura-Skoda, Imre Rohmann, Eero Heinonen or Jacques Ogg, among others.
His solo piano album, dedicated to Isaac Albéniz, was released by Naxos Records in 2015 and got a warm welcome by international critics. Milla is a professor of the Conservatory of Music in Ciudad Real and IEM Institute. He combines teaching with concert activity and recording production. He has been invited to participate in numerous international festivals such as the “Mikkeli Music Festival” (Finland), the “International Isaac Albéniz Festival”, the “Toledo International Festival” (appearing as a soloist with the London Festival Orchestra), the “Early Music Vancouver” (Canada) and “Twin Cities Early Music Festival”(USA). He has made recordings for Spanish National Radio, Finnish National Radio, the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Siba Records , the Catalan Association of Composers and Veleta Roja Editions.
Throughout his career he has received several national and international awards such as the First prizes at “José Roca” piano competition (Spain) and the “Erkki Melartin” Lied Competition (Finland), the nomination to the International Award at “Cubadisco Festival” of Havana.
Together with poet Aldo Méndez and Flutist Carlos Cano he is a founding member of Veleta Roja, organization that develops many projects that promote synergy between artistic creation, education and social actions. Their last work, the album “Canciones y palabras” was nominated as best album for children in the Latin GRAMMY® Awards (2016).
Hernán Milla plays in duo with flutist Carlos Cano Escribá. In may 2017 the duo released in New York the album “Por la rivera de Paquito”, a tribute to the legendary Paquito D’Rivera. The album has got recently two awards: Best Jazz Album (Akademia Awards) and Gold Medal-Latin Jazz Crossover (Global Music Awards).
Critics
(…) Spanish-born Hernán Milla… is a wonderful pianist. There is nothing routine in his playing and much to admire as he draws all the color and rhythmic subtlety he can from the music…
(…) you have the feeling that the music just flows from his fingers, his own musical personality subjugated so as to leave the listener in direct contact with the composer. The sound quality on the seventh of this on-going cycle of Albéniz is superbly recorded…
(…) Milla has a solid command of the many technical demands that Albéniz has imponed . If the movements of Opus 68 are a bit short for nineteenth-century sonatas, Milla brings an expressive urgency to his execution that makes it clear that this is not an assembly of three disjoint movements. On the other hand he has just the right lightness of touch to capture the spirit of each of the twelve Opus 92 pieces. This is definitely a welcome addition to Naxos’ project.
