Miller, Mildred

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Miller, Mildred

Miller, Mildred, American soprano and opera administrator; b. Cleveland, Dec. 16, 1924. She studied at the Cleveland Inst. of Music (B.M., 1946) and with Sundelius at the New England Cons, of Music in Boston (diploma, 1948). In 1949 she went to Germany and began her operatic career with appearances in Stuttgart and Munich. On Nov. 17, 1951, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Cherubino. Among her later roles there were Dorabella (1952), Octavian and Carmen (1953), Nicklausse (1955), and Rossini’s Rosina and Strauss’s Composer (1963). She remained on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera until 1975. During her years there, Miller also appeared widely as a concert singer. In 1978 she founded the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, which she led as artistic director until her retirement in 1999.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire