BIOGRAPHY
"Your only limit is your SOUL."
~ Walt Disney
Mia Traverse is a pre-service music teacher and has been at Butler University since the Fall of 2021, where she is studying music education with a jazz emphasis. Inspired by her middle school band director to pursue teaching as a career, she is passionate about sharing the joys and power of music. She has had several opportunities to fuel this passion and work with young music students, ranging from full ensembles to private lessons. In 2024, she taught as an instructor at Bach to Rock, teaching saxophone and piano lessons to students of all ages. The same year, she taught as a teacher in the Butler Youth Jazz Program where she coached students in a combo setting on the techniques of small group playing and improvisation. She spent Spring 2024 interning in the Noblesville West Middle School band
program with Mr. Stacey White. In the summers of 2024 and 2023, she taught as a teaching fellow at the Butler Community Arts School Jazz Camp and co-directed one of the large ensembles; she also had the privilege of working with the Sussex-Hamilton High School Marching Band as a staff member, coaching marching and music basics, aswell as the front ensemble. She is also a member of the National Association for Music Education, the Indiana Music Education Association, and the Servant Leadership Association for Music.
In addition to education, Mia has a strong interest in both classical and jazz performance. Her primary instrument is alto saxophone, which she has been studying since 2013. During her time at Butler, she has been a part of the university's Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and Jazz Combo. She also is a passionate chamber ensemble musician and is the soprano saxophone player and leader of the Blue Box Saxophone Quartet, which had the honor of performing a concerto with the Butler University Wind Ensemble in 2024. Her current instructors are Dr. Phil Pierick and Dr. Matthew Pivec, and she has previously worked with Dr. Heidi Radtke, Jon Waite, and Dave Petty. Recently, she worked intensely on expanding her solo classical saxophone skills, earning honorable mention in the 2024 Patricia Tretick Young Artist Competition, in addition to placing as a finalist in both the 2023 and 2022 Butler University Concerto Competition. In 2021, she performed as a featured concerto soloist with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Wind Ensemble. That same year, she was named a recipient of the John Philip Sousa Award and Woody Herman Jazz Award for her dedication to her high school’s band program.
Beyond playing, Mia enjoys music composition and has written several original works and arranged many more, ranging from solo piano to chamber ensemble to wind ensemble. Many of these, such as Side by Side (2024) and Legacy (2022), have been given world premieres by local musicians and professionals. As part of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s John Downey Creation Project for composition, she has gotten to collaborate with professionals such as Dan Maske, Dr. Nikki Roman, and Chris Mell.
In her free time, Mia enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Some of her favorite activities (aside from making music, of course) are tackling difficult jigsaw puzzles, reading, hiking, and drawing.