James Reed Miller (February 29, 1880 – December 29, 1923), who recorded as Reed Miller and as James Reed, was an American

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

who had an active career as a concert and

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

singer during the first quarter of the 20th century. He possessed a beautiful warm lyrical voice that was very expressive.Biography at operissimo.com (in German)
/ref>

Biography

James Reed Miller was born in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

on February 29, 1880. His parents were George Washington Miller (1837–1892) and Emmala Thompson Miller (née Reed; 1839–1893). He was the youngest of five children; his siblings were William Nicholas (1869–1922), George Augustus (1871–1941), Caroline Hammond (1873–1961), and Mary Yarborough (1873–1965). Miller began his career as a soloist in churches in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

where he achieved a high reputation. He began appearing at major music festivals throughout the United States in the first decade of the 20th century. He was married to

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically b ...

Nevada Van der Veer Nevada Van der Veer Miller (July 25, 1884 – September 26, 1958) was an American contralto singer. Early life Emma Nevada Van der Veer was born in New York, the daughter of George Wyckoff Van der Veer and Jennie Lind Catlin Van der Veer. She was ...

(1870-1958). Along with his wife,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Agnes Kimball and

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

Frank Croxton, Miller toured the United States in the Croxton Quartet. He was also a member of the Columbia Stellar Quartet. Miller is best remembered today for his contributions to the early days of recorded music. Unlike many other recordings of his time, his are of a high musical level. His earliest known record dates to 1905 on Edison Records.UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive, James Reed "I'm wearing my heart away for you

/ref> He went on to make recordings through 1923 with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, Edison Records ( Amberola plates and cylinders), Pathé Records, Rainbow Records, Rex Records,

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

, and the

Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidia ...

. He also made recordings with the Croxton Quartet for Edison and recorded several duets with Frederick Wheeler (under the names of "James Reed & James F. Harrison" ) for Victor.

References

External links

Reed Miller recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Reed 1880 births 1923 deaths American operatic tenors 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers Singers from New York City Classical musicians from New York (state)