Nolan Miller, Phila. Orchestra horn player

Nolan Miller, 73, of Haddonfield, whose ultrarefined sound led the legendarily blended French horn section of the Philadelphia Orchestra for several decades, died Sunday, April 7, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

He had been battling leukemia and died of a stroke, said his wife, Marjorie.

Mr. Miller joined the orchestra as coprincipal horn upon graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1965 and assumed the principal horn spot in the 1978-79 season. He retired from the orchestra after four decades, in 2005.

His playing was the manifestation of a high-art concept that placed homogeneous sonorities above individualism. It was an ensemble-wide philosophy that for decades helped to make the Philadelphia Sound a unique calling card among the world's top orchestras.

"One example of the Philadelphia's splendid balance was Nolan Miller's horn playing in the first two movements of the Brahms, full of individual character and yet never isolated from the ensemble," wrote a New York Times critic after the orchestra's 1993 season opener of Carnegie Hall, Wolfgang Sawallisch's first New York appearance as music director.

And yet, his playing attracted attention for an inner glow of intensity without being showy.

"Simply heroic," said the Baltimore Sun of Mr. Miller in a 1994 performance of Mahler's taxing Symphony No. 5.

"Nolan was the consummate ensemble musician who readily melded with the timbre of other instruments to create new instrumental sounds, and whose pitch control was absolutely impeccable," said fellow hornist Randy Gardner, who played alongside Mr. Miller for 22 years in the orchestra.

Born in Hamburg, Berks County, first trained in piano, he was something of a solfège prodigy by age 7, his wife said. The two met as students as Lebanon Valley College scholarship winners - "he got the full scholarship, I got the half scholarship," she said - and were married while he was still at Curtis studying with Mason Jones.

Though the horn is an especially treacherous instrument and the job often put him in the spotlight, Mr. Miller - who played a Conn and Paxman, but mostly a classic Prussian Kruspe - approached his work with an air of calm.

"He was at ease and steady in his being," said his wife. "He was certainly very serious. He always played horn twice a day. On Christmas and the holidays I asked him when he was going to practice so I could work the day around it."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Laura Marie Miller and Alison Miller and her husband Robert Smentek and a granddaughter, Lillian.

Donations may be made in his name to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Food Bank of South Jersey.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, April 13, at 11 a.m. at the Collingswood Presbyterian Church, 30 Fern Ave., Collingswood, with visitation at 10.

In his memory, a choir will perform - made entirely of hornists.

at 215-854-5611 or pdobrin@phillynews.com.