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By
Karen Hart
 Bruce
Miller's fifth-floor Hogan Center corner office is a testimonial
to 23 years worth of work in music and performance. While
the office arguably has a great view of the campus, the room
itself is dominated by items of even greater interest. A
pair of speakers are
hung from the front corners. A red director's chair jauntily proclaims "West
Side Story" in white letters. A Baldwin piano is wedged between wall and bookcase.
And on that bookcase, two shelves are filled with books by and about W.S. Gilbert
and Arthur Sullivan.
"And that's only part of it," said Miller, who has had a long-standing interest
in musical theater, particularly the
operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.
When Bruce Miller was first recruited from the New England Conservatory to do
choral work at Holy Cross in 1975, there was no formal department of music. At
that time, all music studies, including singing groups, fell under a wide-ranging
fine arts umbrella.
Miller's job then was to take the 35-member, formerly all-male Glee Club and
turn it into a group that would soon be called the College Choir. Four years
later, in 1979, the group's
performance of the Mozart Requiem in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
coincided with the beginning of the school's music department.
"My feeling about the program has always been that we are the successor to the
tradition of the Glee Club, which had
a rich history of its own," Miller said. As director of the College Choir and
the Holy Cross Chamber Singers, Miller now oversees four times as many singers
than when he began.
Miller's own music career began in Long Island, N.Y., where he first learned
to play the piano at six-years-old and later added the organ at 12. His first
taste of conducting came when, as a senior in high school, he took over the directorship
of three choirs and played
the organ at a Methodist church near his home.
He followed with studies at the State University of New York, Fredonia, where
he majored in organ and earned a master's degree in conducting. He later did
graduate studies under the guidance of Gregg Smith at the Peabody Conservatory.
And throughout his life, Miller
sang.
"There is a certain uniqueness to a vocal ensemble, in that there is a shared
utterance that is profound," he said. "This is difficult to describe to people
who haven't had the experience, but those who are members of successful choruses
will tell you there is a certain profound quality in a shared utterance which
creates art and
beauty. It can't be found anywhere else in music in quite the same way."
Those qualities are key to the experience Miller tries to provide for his students.
As a lecturer in the music department, Miller also sees the choir program not
only as a co-curricular part of the music department but also as an integral
part. Miller wants his students to understand more than the feeling the creation
of music brings. He wants
them to know the works in a broader context.
"In my work I try to have the College Choir relate strongly to the academic component
of the music department," Miller
said. "So when we study literature I like them to know what the structure of
it is, as much of the theory as even the nonmusic majors can address, and seeing
that the music that we're performing is part of the cultural history of our country
and of the cultures from which the music was derived."
Miller has found that though most Holy Cross students are not in pursuit of musical
careers, they are capable of giving
quality performances.
"What we deal with at this College is a population of students who are extremely
intelligent and well-prepared academically," he said. "These are liberal arts
students, not specialists in a music conservatory. But because they are so talented
generally, and because the basic skills of singing can be learned in a relatively
short period of time, I have found that they can learn and achieve impressively
if they are sufficiently
motivated and encouraged."
That ability and quality are evident in the variety of performances and recordings
the choir has made under Miller's leadership. In 1989, the choir performed for
a papal audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. From 1990 to 1995, they
performed at the Boston
Pops annual holiday concerts. Under Miller's direction, the College Choir has
published five recordings, including an album of Christmas music, Lo!
He Comes, and a commemorative CD for the College's sesquicentennial, Thy
Voice is One in Song.
One of Miller's off-campus interests is his work on the critical
edition project of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, being
published by Broude Brothers Limited
of Williamstown, Mass. Miller has been working as an editor
on the project for three of the operas and was recently named
to the editorial board. So far, only
one volume has
been published, the full orchestral score and libretto
for Trial By
Jury. Eventually, all 13 will appear in print and performing
materials will be produced as well. Scholarly research
and analysis could continue
for another
20 years, Miller said.
But while Gilbert and Sullivan may have Miller's heart, his
home remains on College Hill.
"Someone once asked me if I was going to enjoy this for the rest of my life,
when I first started conducting at the college
level," he said. "And I do believe, yes, I made the right decision."
Karen Hart is a freelance journalist from
West Boylston, Mass.
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