DAVID MILLER, Tenor (USA)
Studious, intense and driven, 35-year-old American tenor David Miller is probably the most classically trained member of Il Divo. Having discovered his love of music at an early age, David attended Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, where he graduated with a BA in Vocal Performance and a Masters degree in Opera Theatre. He was artist in residence for 2 years with the Pittsburgh opera, and has sung leading roles with major opera companies all over the Americas, Australia and Europe. In 2002/2003 he appeared on Broadway as Rodolfo in Baz Lurhman's production of 'La Boheme', and was about to make his New York Metropolitan opera debut when he was asked to join Il Divo.
"I think that opera is the pinnacle of vocal expression" says David. "The experience of Lurhman's 'La Boheme', however, had encouraged me to get my head out of the 'operatic' box, in order to use my voice in an even more passionate way. Singing traditional operas, I had always worked very technically with teachers, working towards getting everything as close to letter perfect as I could. It was all about making sure the sound was perfect. In fact so much of my brain was taken up with the idea of perfection, that I sometimes lost some of the emotional connection with the other singers, and sometimes with the audience. Baz's production, in a way, prepared me for being in Il Divo. It helped me to see that technique was not enough to really move people. I began to find a new focus...feeling the music. Now with Il Divo I am connecting to the music through my heart instead of my head. Having a solid classical technique now becomes my vehicle for moving my emotion."
While his pop colleague Sébastien Izambard had to flex his voice a little more to perform with trained opera singers, David argues that his learning curve has been just as steep. "Sébastien has a very natural technique and has been stepping it up and learning the parts of his voice that were maybe undiscovered. All of the parts of my voice that have already been discovered can't be undiscovered. Since I can't "untrain" my voice I actually had to learn a completely new technique to sing pop. It's a raw sound, but it is very emotive, and Its something that tends to get covered up when you're singing to the back wall over a 70 piece orchestra like in an opera."
David visibly rankles at the idea that Il Divo could, in any way, be considered to be defiling the opera. "We don't sing any opera repertoire. Its just that simple. We lend what we know about the drama and power of the operatic voice to our music, but thats where we draw the line. If anything, we create a gateway for a wider fanbase to become curious about opera. We have created a scenario whereby the mass public no longer believes the stereotype of the operatic voice as some kind of unobtainable, un-listenable thing. It's all music. So if we can bring those two worlds of "opera" and "pop" closer together, maybe we will inspire a whole new type of musical creativity."
Far from having turned his back on opera, David still tries to fit operatic engagements into his schedule whenever he can. "It's like medicine to me," he says. "But opera will always be there. It's not going anywhere."
He is proud of his venture into the world of popular song. "I've gained many things from my "adventures" with Il Divo. My voice is four years stronger, I continue to think outside the musical box, I now have much greater control over my instrument, and I look ahead with confidence at a schedule that four years ago might have made me think twice. It really takes a strength of will to move on this fast paced course, and I feel I've gained the needed stamina. And I have certainly gained a new respect for cultures! I have had the opportunity to see a very very large cross section of humanity, which is a wonderful gift, in and of itself. But in relation to our music, there seems to be a universality in what we do. There seems to be something about the way we sing that appeals to Koreans, Venezuelans, Russians, United States-ians, Japanese South Africans, Norwegians, Canadians, Chileans, and almost everyone in between. But i think the most important, thing that I've learned, is that everyone has a passion. Everyone has an inner music. And finding that and following it, is finding freedom.
