Kevin Miller (singer)
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Kevin Aquila Miller OAM (7 February 1928 – 23 May 2019) was an Australian tenor opera singer[1][2]. He performed in London, Europe and Australia, and worked as a performance teacher and production director in England, Adelaide, and Hong Kong. As a principal singer with the Sadler's Wells Opera in London for a decade he worked with many artists including Australian soprano June Bronhill.
Biography[edit]
Kevin Miller was born in Adelaide, South Australia. His early years were spent in small country towns where his father was a railway station master. He enrolled in the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide and after a student debut as Ferrando in Mozart's 'Cosi Fan Tutte' he was invited in 1950 to sing the role of Count Almaviva in Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' with The National Opera based in Melbourne where his vocal agility scored a success[3].
In 1951 Miller won the Commonwealth Jubilee Singing scholarship[4] which, combined with the generous financial support of a fund[5][6][7] supported by Adelaide's then evening newspaper The News, enabled him to study in London.
Miller studied with the famous tenor Dino Borgioli before entering the National Opera School under Dame Joan Cross, until another lucky break came in 1955 when he came out of the chorus and stood in for the Spanish tenor Juan Oncina as Fenton in the Glyndebourne Opera’s production of Verdi's Falstaff at the Edinburgh Festival. By this time, long periods of study in Siena and Rome, together with touring Italy and Germany as soloist with Rome-based 'il Gruppo di Musica Rara', had given him considerable fluency in his favoured language Italian.
Of Miller's first three principal roles with Glyndebourne Opera in 1956, it was a performance as Pedrillo in Mozart's 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail' that provided the ideal launching pad for his professional career. In the same year he returned to Australia for a tour of operas to celebrate the bicentenary of Mozart's birth and then, after a further season as principal at Glyndebourne Opera in 1957, he joined the 1958 Arts Council of Great Britain's Touring Opera Company which replaced the defunct Carl Rosa Opera. His roles included Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Vasek (The Bartered Bride).
1959 saw the beginning of a long association with Sadler's Wells Opera as a full-time principal. In the 1960s there was a refreshing revival of Offenbach's operettas at Sadler's Wells in which he scored an outstanding success as Paris (La Belle Hélène), Orpheus (Orpheus in the Underworld) and Bobinet (La vie Parisiènne). In 1962 he again returned to Australia as Orpheus in the Sadler's Wells production of the operetta. In this busy decade he also performed with the BBC: Beppe (I Pagliacci) conductor Charles Mackerras, Paris (La Belle Hélène) conductor John Mattheson, Orpheus (Orpheus in the Underworld) conductor Alexander Faris, Sellem (The Rake's Progress) with conductor Igor Stravinsky as well as Truffaldino (The Love for Three Oranges). During the following years at Sadler's Wells Opera he was a regular guest artist covering a wide-ranging repertoire including the final three years (1970–1973) when he served a double contract as both singer and staff producer.
By 1974, in addition to the directing of operas at what was about to become the English National Opera at the London Coliseum, his interest in commercial production had been stimulated by directing a series of major new-release international musicals with the prestigious Peterborough Operatic Society including The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Oliver. And, finally, after twenty five years overseas he prepared himself for an eventual return to Australia. To initiate a career change, he became Front-of-House Manager of the Sadler's Wells Theatre for a year while successfully negotiating with the Arts Council of Australia for a grant to successfully complete a Post-Graduate in Arts Administration at the Polytechnic of Central London.
Miller's career change was not to be without difficulties. Because of national political and financial problems in Australia, relocation to Adelaide in 1976 offered little opportunity for Arts Administration. But, nevertheless, now in middle age, Miller's performance experience, plus teaching at the Royal College of Music and the London Opera Studio, enabled a second career as a Head of Vocal Studies within one of the evolving tertiary Colleges of Advanced Education. For the next sixteen years, apart from brief performance excursions and a two-year stint as Chairman of the State Opera of South Australia, Miller dedicated himself exclusively to education until his official retirement as Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium of Music in 1994.
In 1994, while still continuing at the Elder Conservatorium as now Acting-Head of Vocal Studies, Miller was offered the position of Head of Opera and Vocal Studies at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. This modern state-of-the-art institution, with its seemingly unlimited financial resources, finally permitted him the satisfaction of attaining his ambition of initiating and developing a fully-fledged Post-Graduate Opera Course. During this intensive eight-year period, he produced and directed twelve major productions at the Academy until, in 2002, a second retirement brought this last period of his active career to closure.
Miller retired in Adelaide, the city of his birth, and whilst slowly affected by the onset of Parkinson's Disease, he died after a short illness at the Calvary Wakefield Hospital in May 2019.
Personal Life[edit]
Kevin Miller was married twice. First, to Barbara Peggy Fearn in London, England, 1955. They have two children Tessa and Christopher (Kit). His second marriage was to Gillian Mary Farrin (née Gray) in Peterborough, England, 1980. She has two children Jane and Paul.
Honours[edit]
In January 2006 Miller was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia[8] (OAM) for service to the performing arts, particularly opera as a performer, producer and educator.
Commercial Recordings[edit]
| Role | Work | Composer | Format/Label | Country | Year |
| Orpheus | Orpheus in the Underworld | Offenbach | Vinyl: His Master's Voice | UK | 1960 |
| Bobinet | La Vie Parisienne | Offenbach | Vinyl: His Master's Voice | UK | 1961 |
| Paris | La Belle Hélène | Offenbach | Vinyl: His Master's Voice | UK | 1963 |
| Vasek | The Bartered Bride | Smetana | Vinyl: His Master's Voice | UK | 1963 |
| Ottokar | The Gypsy Baron | Strauss J. | |||
| Auctioneer | The Rake's Progress | Stravinsky | CD: Sony (Original recording issued by Columbia) | UK | 1964 |
| Tenor | The Royal Shakespeare Company's ‘The Hollow Crown’ | ||||
| Various | Offenbach: Orpheus In The Underworld / La Vie Parisienne / La Belle Helene [Highlights in English] | Offenbach | CD: EMI Classics | UK | 2003 |
References[edit]
- ↑ MacKenzie, Barbara; MacKenzie, Findlay (1967). Singers of Australia : from Melba to Sutherland. Melbourne : Lansdowne Press. Search this book on
- ↑ Cargher, John (1988). Bravo! Two hundred years of opera in Australia. National Library: MacMillan Australia. pp. 46, 60, 221. ISBN 0333-47867-3. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ "High Praise For S.A. Tenor Who Began As Baritone". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954). 1951-02-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
- ↑ "Big wins to Kevin Miller". Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954). 1951-07-07. p. 1. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ↑ "MORE DONATIONS HELP KEVIN MILLER FUND". News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954). 1951-04-27. p. 3. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- ↑ "DISTRICT SUPPORT FOR KEVIN MILLER". News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954). 1951-05-04. p. 3. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- ↑ "Kevin Miller Fund Wound Up". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954). 1951-11-24. p. 11. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- ↑ "Kevin Aquila Miller (OAM) 2006".
External Links[edit]
Kevin Miller award Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) 26 January 2006
Kevin Miller recordings Sadler's Wells
Kevin Miller published programs in National Library
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