Richard Miller-A Tribute

RICHARD MADE ME PROMISE that this would not sound like an obituary. The National Association of Teachers of Singing owes Richard Miller a tremendous debt. In 1980, he became editor of the then NATS Journal and led it brilliantly for the next eight years. He and his lovely wife Mary would check every word in every issue before it went to the printer. But lets go back to the beginning of this relationship which has lasted for almost fifty years. Sometime in February of 1957, Louis Lane, conductor of the Canton (Ohio) Symphony and also Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, called me at our apartment in Wooster. A tenor, originally from Canton, who had been singing in Switzerland, was moving back to this country. Louis had booked him to sing with the Canton Symphony. In addition to the Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge, the program would close with an excerpt from Donizetti's Lucia. Would I be interested in doing the baritone role? When one is not quite twenty-five and gets an opportunity to sing with any fine orchestra, one is interested. I first heard Richard Miller sing at the rehearsal the night before the concert. I was impressed. After the concert the next evening, I said to Richard (I'm sure I called him Mr. Miller, since he was much older than I!), "You can have a great career." A list of the times we sang together would take too much space. Some high spots were: The Rake's Progress, the first production of the Lake Erie Opera Theatre in 1964; for the same company, Albert Herring and the Richard Strauss Capriccio. I also might mention that I liked Richard's singing well enough to hire him to sing at The College of Wooster, when I was conducting oratorios there. He sang the title role in Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicholas and the tenor solos in the Haydn Creation and The Seasons. In the latter work, it was particularly pleasant to have one of my dearest friends joined by one of my most successful students, Erie Mills. If I were to list all the other major singing engagements that Richard had, it really would take too much space. He sang leading roles in Zurich for four years and also with the San Francisco Opera. He has sung with most of the major orchestras, while building an unusually great name as a teacher of singing. His master classes have been in great demand all over the world. Somehow, he has found time to write eight books about singing, interpretation, and the teaching of singing. I have asked him to slow down his writing, because I have not had time to finish the last two he has written. Of course, there have been honors: an honorary doctorate from Gustavus Adolphus College; the chosen speaker for the Voice Symposium's most honored speech; the recipient of one of France's most coveted titles, Chevalier/Officier, by L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. I could stop here, but I would be leaving out the most remarkable thing about this most remarkable man, whom I have known for so long. …