Career of Internationaal Renowned Professor of Singing Richard Miller to be Celebrated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a Concert in Finney Chapel on Sunday, April 29

April 20 , 2007 -- Internationally renowned vocal pedagogue Richard Miller, who retired at the end of the 2005-06 academic year after serving as a faculty member of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for 42 years, will be honored at a concert featuring 10 of his former students, all of whom are in the midst of critically acclaimed careers.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, is Sunday, April 29, at 8 p.m. in Finney Chapel, located across from Tappan Square at 90 North Professor Street, on the Oberlin College campus. The program will include performances from bass-baritones Andrew Nolen ’97 and Daniel Okulitch ’99; baritones David Adam Moore ’97, Hugh Russell ’00, and Robert Sims ’88; tenors Salvatore Champagne ’85 and Joel Sorensen ’89; mezzo soprano Marie Lenormand ’99; and sopranos Margaret Cusack ’75 and Kendra Colton ’83. Champagne and Colton are also members of Oberlin’s voice faculty; Champagne is Associate Professor of Singing and Colton is Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice. Pianists for the evening are Howard Lubin and Curt Pajer. A reception will follow the concert in Klutznick Commons at Peters Hall.

“Richard Miller is a legend in the field of music,” says Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull. “His contribution to Oberlin as an artist, teacher, and mentor has been utterly extraordinary. Beyond Oberlin, his students have continually occupied the great performance stages of the world and have transmitted his passion for music to audiences and students alike. As a professor, his prodigious scholarly output and his teaching methods have shaped the curricula of private teachers and conservatories throughout the world.”

It is a testament to Miller’s reputation that the official journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) published a Festschrift on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Articles and essays by Miller’s colleagues and admirers in the field fill the pages of the January/February 2007 issue of the Journal of Singing. Martha Randall, president of NATS, writes in a preface to the Festschrift that Miller is “an icon in our profession.” An essay by Paul Kiesgen, Professor of Music at Indiana University’s School of Music, reads:  “I have never taken a voice lesson with Richard Miller, yet I think of myself as one of his students. I have learned as much about singing from Richard Miller as from anyone I have ever encountered. … Through his teaching, extensive writings, and frequent appearances as a clinician, Richard Miller has influenced the thinking of singers and teachers throughout the world.”

Richard Miller
A native of Canton, Ohio, Richard Miller is the Wheeler Professor of Singing (Emeritus) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and founder, in 1989, of the Conservatory’s Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center, a high-tech studio where measurable analyses advance the art of singing. He is the author of eight books about singing that are standards in the field, as well as more than 120 scholarly articles. His master classes are internationally acclaimed, and include engagements in Austria—where for 27 years he was visiting professor of singing at the famed Salzburg Mozarteum—Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and nearly every state in America. His rich performance career throughout Europe and America includes oratorio and recital and some 50 operatic roles in more than 450 performances. He is the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and honors, including France’s coveted Chevalier/Officier, by L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.

Concert Artists and Program
Bass-baritone Andrew Nolen’s performances include those with the Edinburgh Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the American Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West, among others. He will sing a Schubert lied, “An die Leier,” and the aria “Vi ravviso, o luoghi ameni,” from Bellini’s opera La Sonnambula.

Daniel Okulitch first came to national attention on Broadway as Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème, a role the bass-baritone repeated in Los Angeles, and for which he received the Ovation Award for Best Ensemble Performance from the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. He has since performed with opera companies and orchestras throughout Europe and North America. He will sing “Love-Sight,” from Vaughan Williams’ setting of Gabriel Dante Rossetti’s sonnet cycle House of Life, and an operatic aria.

Baritone David Adam Moore has appeared in more than 35 principal roles with such major opera companies as New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. He will sing “Hai già vinta la causa … Vedrò mentr’ io sospiro” from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and the “Urlicht” movement from Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.

The young Canadian baritone Hugh Russell made his New York City Opera debut as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, also performing the role with the Atlanta Opera.Other roles include Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos under Kent Nagano at the Los Angeles Opera, the Pilot in Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince (Boston Lyric Opera), and Valentin in Faust (Pittsburgh Opera). He has been a regular performer with the New York Festival of Song. Russell will sing the comic aria “Largo al factotum” from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Schumann’s “Widmung.”

Baritone Robert Sims is highly regarded for his moving and authentic interpretations of African American spirituals in recitals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His performances in Japan of Leonard Bernstein’s Opening Prayer with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra were nationally televised. His operatic credits include roles in Don Pasquale, Romeo et Juliette, Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Pagliacci, and La Traviata. Sims will sing a Roland Hayes arrangement of “Lit’l Boy,” Roland M. Carter’s arrangement of “Is There Anybody Here?,” and Aaron Copland’s arrangement of “I Bought Me a Cat.”

Salvatore Champagne has appeared in a wide range of lyric tenor roles with the ensemble of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany, and he has appeared as a guest at some of Europe’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Teatro Bellini in Catania, and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. He will sing three Schubert lieder: “Ganymed,” “An eine Quelle,” and “Versunken.”

Since his 1994 debut with New York City Opera, tenor Joel Sorensen has given more than 200 performances in more than two dozen productions, including The Magic Flute, Madama Butterfly, Falstaff, Turandot, Salome, Of Mice and Men, La rondine, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Il trittico, and Mefistofele. He will sing “Immer ist Undank Loges Lohn!” from Wagner’s Das Rheingold and
Brahms’ “Wie bist du, meine Königin.”

Soprano Kendra Colton has been soloist with many leading orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, and is particularly sought after for baroque and classical repertoire, although she is also a proponent of new music. She will sing two French songs, Duparc’s “Chanson triste,” and Fauré’s “Soir.” She and tenor Salvatore Champagne will also sing Schumann’s “In der Nacht.”

French mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand, a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio from 1999 to 2002, is also a distinguished oratorio singer. In addition to such operatic performances as the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea, the Page in Rigoletto, and Thelma Predmore in the world premiere (Houston Grand Opera) of Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree, she was the alto soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass under Robert Shaw, as well as in Elijah with a cast headed by Sherrill Milnes. She will sing the aria “Smanie implacabili” from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and, from Ravel’s opera L’heure espagnole, “Oh! La pitoyable aventure.”

Soprano Margaret Cusack made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Elektra in 1999 under the baton of James Levine. With her 1985 New York City Opera debut as Micaela in Carmen, she became a leading soprano with the company. She will sing Wolf’s “Mignon: Kennst du das Land” and “Hat dich die Liebe berührt” by Marx.

For more information about this and other Conservatory concerts, please call the Conservatory’s 24-hour Concert Hotline at 440-775-6933 or visit www.oberlin.edu/con. Finney Chapel is wheelchair accessible, and free parking is available throughout the campus.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated amid the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and pronounced a “national treasure” by the Washington Post, its alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. Numerous Oberlin alumni have attained stature as solo performers, composers, and conductors, among them Jennifer Koh, Steven Isserlis, Denyce Graves, Franco Farina, Christopher Robertson, Lisa Saffer, George Walker, Christopher Rouse, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. All of the members of the contemporary music ensembles eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) are Oberlin graduates, and members of the Miró, Pacifica, Juilliard, and Fry Street quartets, among others, include Oberlin alumni, who can also be found in major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world.

- ### -

Media Contact:

Marci Janas
Director of Conservatory Media Relations
Oberlin College
440-775-8328

< back to current press releases