Musicians Institute brags about grads' success

Musicians Institute (www.mi.edu) is pleased to note the exciting ongoing success stories of former Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) students Ben Carroll and Jason Miller.

Since attending MI’s Bachelor of Music in Performance program, Carroll has been maintaining a unique dual career touring and recording as guitarist with the highly successful indie hard rock band rock Ra while also making records as a solo instrumental artist.

“Over the past five years I have sold around a half-million albums,” he says.

The Ra discography includes six releases capped by 2008’s Black Sun (Universal/SMR). Carroll’s next solo title, A Dream Between Two Fires, is scheduled for release in 2009.

Ra has performed thousands of shows as headliners and has opened for such major acts as Korn, Audioslave, and Godsmack. Carroll has been featured in numerous guitar magazines, including Guitar One and Guitar World, and has endorsements from ESP Guitars and Mesa/Boogie Amps, among others. For more information, check out:
www.myspace.com/bencarroll and www.bencarrollmusic.com.

Likewise, Miller has been steadily expanding his resume since attending MI. As a composer and producer, he has worked with Kanye West (“Good Night” from Graduation; Island/Def Jam) and Keyshia Cole (A Different Me, Geffen) as well as film and TV scores for Sony and Paramount, among many others. In 2007, he won the 168 Project International Film Festival Best Original Score award for “Threshold” (solidRock Productions).

As a session guitarist, Miller has appeared on numerous film and TV soundtracks including “Becker,” “Frasier,” and “The House on Haunted Hill,” as well as recordings by Tiffany Evans (Who I Am, Columbia Records) and the Pussycat Dolls (Tainted Love, A&M Records). He was a finalist in the 2002 North American Rock Guitar Competition and in 2000 was chosen winner over 4000-plus contestants in the “Jam with Kenny Wayne Shepherd Guitar Competition.” For more information, check out: www.jasontmillermusic.com.

Since opening its doors in 1977, Musicians Institute has primed over 20,000 musicians, producers, engineers, vocalists and industry professionals for successful careers in every genre of contemporary music. Located just blocks from the Capitol Records tower, MI has an incredible history of innovation dating back to its origins in 1977 as the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT), which broke new ground as a performance-based contemporary music school taught by working professionals. Within a few years, GIT was joined by bass and drum programs to form Musicians Institute and the evolution has continued to this day with degree and certificate programs for career-minded guitarists, bassists, drummers, vocalists, keyboardists, recording engineers, independent producers, guitar makers, music business professionals and filmmakers.