Dr. Mikylah Myers is Professor of Violin and Assistant Dean of Student Artistic Achievement at West Virginia University's College of Creative Arts. Her performances have been called “energetic and virtuosic” by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and “captivating” by Boulder, Colorado’s Daily Camera. As Assistant Dean, Dr. Myers works to support, promote, and engage College of Creative Arts students in vigorous artistic and cultural endeavors at the national and international levels.
An award-winning chamber musician, Dr. Myers performs prolifically as violinist with the Lyon Piano Trio and the WVU Chamber Players. As a specialist in electro-acoustic performances, her recording “REACT: Music for Flute, Violin and Interactive Computer” (PARMA Ravello Records) with flutist Francesca Arnone was applauded for the duo’s “sensitivity and musicality” (Barcelona’s Sonograma Magazine) and Dr. Myers' "dazzling artistry," "lyricism," and
"polished and sonorous" tone (The Flute View). Dr. Myers performed music from "REACT" at Brooklyn, NY’s National Sawdust, as part of the New York Philharmonic’s 2016 Biennial Celebration of New Music. She can also be heard on “Appalachian Inspiration” (PARMA Records) and “Return to Old Ireland” (Delos Records).
Dr. Myers has a large studio of undergraduate and graduate violin students at West Virginia University, and has received many honors for her commitment to and passion for teaching. This spring she was awarded the “Distinguished Service Award” for the state of West Virginia by the WV String Teachers Association. Previously she was named West Virginia’s Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year by the WV String Teachers Association in both 2010 and 2009, and received the West Virginia University School of Music’s Outstanding Teaching award in 2008. In 2014 Dr. Myers was named the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts "Outstanding Teacher." She regularly gives string clinics in West Virginia and master classes at colleges throughout the nation and has twice served as conductor of the WV Middle School All-State String Orchestra in Charleston, WV. She recently traveled to Spain to perform and teach master classes at the top music conservatories in Barcelona, Zaragoza, and San Sebastian, and to Seoul, Korea to teach master classes at Sejong University and Konkuk University. She is a past president of the West Virginia state chapter of the American String Teachers Association.
Dr. Myers' former students teach and perform professionally throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Asia. Recent graduates have won professional symphony positions, including with The Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England, and college teaching positions in Virginia and abroad in Jakarta and Seoul, Korea. Many are K-12 school orchestra directors in thriving programs in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Her students regularly perform at summer music festivals including: the Roundtop Music Festival (TX); Wintergreen Music Festival (VA); Texas Music Festival (Houston), AIMS in Graz, Austria; Opera in the Ozarks (Arkansas), and perform with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra; New York’s “The Orchestra Now;” Florida's Tallahassee Symphony, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, and Ocala Symphony; and Pennsylvania's Johnstown Symphony. Violinists studying under Dr. Myers have been national finalists in the 2014 and 2016 MTNA Solo and Chamber Music Competitions. Beyond performing and teaching careers, many of Dr. Myers' students have gone on to prestigious academic programs in musicology and arts administration, including at the University of Oxford in England and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Before joining the WVU music faculty in 2007, Dr. Myers was concertmaster of the San Juan Symphony and assistant professor of violin and viola at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She was also the founder, artistic director, and conductor of the Durango Youth Symphony.
Dr. Myers has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain. She was a 19-year member of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon and also performed as a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida for two seasons. In 2016 Dr. Myers joined the faculty of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, where she coaches the orchestra’s violin sections and performs chamber music with OSAI faculty.
Dr. Myers received her doctoral and master’s degrees in violin performance from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where she studied with Fredell Lack. During her time in Houston, Dr. Myers regularly performed with the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera. Dr. Myers earned her bachelor of music degree in violin performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied violin with Roland and Almita Vamos. She was also a four-year-member and co-captain of the Oberlin College women’s soccer team.