Miles Vokurka was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia. His mother was an American citizen living abroad and his father was a musician and music store owner. To escape the communist take-over of his country, he and his family emigrated to Chicago in 1948 just in time for him to enroll in an American kindergarten.
He started piano lessons at an early age and then began playing the clarinet in 4th grade in his grade-school band. As a teenager he studied clarinet with Jerome Stowell of the Chicago Symphony and was a member of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago.
He was accepted into Northwestern University as an engineering student, but quickly transferred into the School of Music (where he seemed to be spending most of his time anyway). He was an active member of the NU Student Band Staff working with directors John Paynter and Cecil B. Wilson, and played B-flat soprano and E-flat sopranino clarinet in the NU Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
Miles received a Bachelor of Music Education degree as well as a Masters in Clarinet Performance from Northwestern, and spent over 20 years teaching and directing high school instrumental music in the Chicagoland area.
Miles and his wife, Susan, live a pastoral life in rural Port Townsend with their menagerie of assorted critters: their dog Samantha, 4 cats, 5 chickens, 2 guinea pigs, a parakeet, and pygmy goats Thelma & Louise.