Mitch Miller
| Mitch Miller | |
|---|---|
Miller on Sing Along with Mitch, 1961
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Mitchell William Miller |
| Born |
July 4, 1911 Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 31, 2010 (aged 99) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Choral, traditional pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, conductor, record producer, record company executive |
| Instruments | English horn, oboe, vocals |
| Years active | 1940s–1960s |
| Associated acts |
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Mitchell William "Mitch" Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American oboist, conductor, recording producer and recording industry executive. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor, and artist and repertoire (A&R) man. Miller was one of the most influential people in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of A&R at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television series, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as an accomplished player of the oboe and English horn, making numerous highly regarded classical and popular recordings, but he is best remembered as a choral conductor on television and as a recordings executive.
Mitch Miller was born in Rochester, New York, on July 4, 1911, to a Jewish family. His mother was Hinda Rosenblum Miller, a former seamstress, and his father, Abram Calmen Miller, a Russian-Jewish immigrant wrought-iron worker. He had four siblings, two of whom, Leon and Joseph, survived him.
Miller took up the oboe at first as a teenager, because it was the only instrument available when he went to audition for his junior high school orchestra. A talented oboist, at age fifteen he played with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and after graduating from East High School he attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. He graduated in 1932 with honors.
After graduating from Eastman, Miller played with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and then moved to New York City where he was a member of the Alec Wilder Octet (1938–1941 and occasionally later), as well as performing with David Mannes, Andre Kostelanetz, Percy Faith, George Gershwin, Charlie Parker, and under Frank Sinatra's baton for the 1946 recording of "The Music of Alec Wilder."
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