Leanne Freeman-Miller

Biography

Soprano Leanne Freeman-Miller, Ellis & Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Voice, has performed on stages across the United States, Europe and China, including a solo performance for the World Youth Conference at the internationally acclaimed Shanghai Oriental Art Center.  She has twice been a regional finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her compact disc, “Letters from the Garden”, distributed by Centaur Records, features contemporary repertoire by female composers (scholarly review published in the Journal of Singing “Listener’s Gallery” by Gregory Berg, 2014), and her most recent compact disc, “Du Vieux Amis” (Steve Capp Productions) highlights songs by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Schubert, Hundley and Ricky Ian Gordon.  Solo performances include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Tuscia Opera Festival, Italy, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Brahms Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor and Bernstein’s Songfest, to name a few.  Publishing credits include “Why is New Music Important?” (Graphite Publishing), “The Vocal Edge” (Iowa Choral Directors Association) and a most recent invited review of OperaAria, Repertoire for Lyric Tenor by Breitkopf & Hartel (American Music Teacher). 

An internationally renowned and sought-after teacher, Ms. Freeman-Miller’s students have been accepted to and have studied at the country’s most prestigious graduate programs, such as Boston Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Juilliard School, Cincinnati Conservatory, University of Southern California, Florida State University, McGill University, and Indiana University.  Her alumni have sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Sante Fe, Wolf Trap, Chicago Lyric Opera, St. Louis Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pittsburg Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, among others.  They have won competitions and been recipients of awards, including the  Richard Tucker Award, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, MIOpera Competition, John Alexander Voice Competition, Nuremberg Award, Sparrow Life Artist Series, Shirley Rabb Winston National Scholarship and Schubert Club.  Her undergraduate students are frequent winners of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) competitions and have been semi-finalists in the Singer of the Year Competition, sponsored by Shreveport Opera. Undergraduate students have also been accepted to national and international summer programs, including LASHOW, Songfest, College Light Opera, Opera Viva, Seagle Music University of Miami, Salzburg, AIMS in Graz, Austria, Oberlin in Italy, La Musica Lyrica and International Lyric Academy, Italy, and the Intermezzo program in Belgium.

Ms. Freeman-Miller has served on the voice faculties of Opera Viva and International Lyric Academy, is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician, has served in various leadership roles with NATS, and has been nominated frequently for recognition in teaching at Drake University. In addition to being honored as an Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor, she has also been a recipient of the Madelyn Levitt Teacher of the Year award, Drake’s highest honor awarded to faculty for teaching.

Leanne Freeman-Miller Recordings