About Richard Miller

Miller sang publicly beginning at the age of 3, and by age 11 he had performed hundreds of times in his hometown of Canton, Ohio. After graduating from high school in 1944, he was drafted into the United States Army and assigned to the 7th Armored Division tank corps. He was sent to the European theater in January 1945, attached to the British First Army. After the end of hostilities, he was stationed near Marseilles, France and he took voice lessons with baritone Edouard Tyrand at the Marseilles Conservatory. He returned to the U.S. and attended Westminster Choir College, subsequently completing both a bachelor's and a master's degree at the University of Michigan. Following graduate school, he was awarded a Fulbright grant to study voice in Rome, Italy, at L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, where he earned an Artist Diploma. He then went on to sing for four years as leading lyric tenor at the opera house in Zürich, Switzerland. Miller’s rich performance career was distinguished by diversity in opera (some 50 roles in more than 450 performances), oratorio, and recitals in Europe and America. 

As a teacher, Miller served as a professor in Oberlin Conservatory's voice department for more than 40 years (1964-2006). Prior to his appointment at Oberlin, he taught at the University of Michigan for five years, and then at Baldwin-Wallace University. Miller also taught at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria, for 28 years. Engaged by the French Ministry of Culture as an expert pedagogic consultant in 1983, he offered courses in voice pedagogy for teachers and students of the French national conservatory system, presented lectures and classes at the Paris Conservatoire Superieure, at the Marseilles National Opera School, and at Centre Polyphonique. 

His students have enjoyed enormously successful careers and perform in major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Welsh Opera, English National Opera, Montreal, Santiago, Trieste, Palermo, La Scala, Rome Opera, Paris Bastille, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Salzburg, Vienna, and in numerous artist apprenticeship programs in America and Europe. His former students also serve on faculties of major schools of music. 

His eagerness to bring together what is known scientifically about the voice with what is known pedagogically about the voice resulted in his regular attendance at the Voice Foundation's annual symposia, as well as two months of study with Dr. Harm Schutte at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He became known internationally for master classes in systematic vocal technique and artistic interpretation and presented across the United States, in Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. An active researcher and author in voice technique and performance, he undertook research and teaching projects in 14 European countries.

He was a sought-out competition adjudicator and sat on the juries of the Munich, Paris, Metropolitan Scholarship, and National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award competitions. 

Miller served as adjunct staff member, otolaryngology department of Cleveland Clinic Foundation, associate of Collegium Medicorum Theatri, and was a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing. 

In May 1990, he was decorated Chevalier/Officier into the French Order of Arts and Letters by Madame Régine Crespin "in recognition of contributions to the art of vocalism in France and throughout the world." In 2006 Miller received the Voice Education Research Awareness Award from the Voice Foundation for his contributions to the field of voice communication.

A prolific writer, Miller contributed more than 100 articles on voice pedagogy, research, and performance artistry to professional journals, including Journal of Voice, Folia Phoniatrica, Choral Journal, American Music Teacher, Vocal Arts Medicine, Journal of Research in Singing and Applied Vocal Pedagogy, and Journal of Singing. He was also the editor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Journal from 1980-87.