Education
The Royal Conservatory of Music.
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David Mills
Edit ProfileCareer
Retired now, he had an active international singing career that spanned more than five decades. He has published two books of poetry, Isobelle, a Novel in Verse (Toronto 1989) and The Social Comedy (Ottawa 1990). He wrote a one man show, David Mills - His Poetry and Songs, which premiered in Toronto in 1989 and then toured to numerous Canadian cities in the early 1990s.
As a composer he has written a cantata, Vision of Peace to texts from the Book of Isaiah, and several art songs to the poetry of Pauline Johnson and Robert Browning.
As an actor he has appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Company television and in films for Circle Films and Altlantis Films among other production companies. He toured numerous times throughout Europe (1960, 1961, 1965, 1970, 1977, 1979, 1983, and 1988) in addition to making numerous appearances in North America, including 8 nationwide tours of Canada.
He performed programs of Canadian art songs, and notably premiered works by such Canadian composers as James Gayfer, Welford Russell, Boleslaw Szczeniowski, and León Zuckert. The latter two composers notably set Mills" own poems to music
In a 1987 review, music critic Pauline Durichen described his voice as "displaying vibrant deep-range control.. and at times a soulful sweetness at heights where few basses dare linger".
Mills also occasionally performed in oratorios and operas. In 1953 he sang in his first professional oratorio performance with the Yorkminster Choir under the baton of his former teacher, Doctorate"Alton McLaughlin. In 1954 he performed the bass solos in Ludwig van Beethoven"s rarely heard 1814 cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick with conductor Emil Gartner and the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir.
On the opera stage he performed with the Canadian National Opera in Toronto in 1953, the Opéra de Marseille in 1957-1958, and at a summer festival of light opera in Chicago in 1958.
Mills studied voice at the University of Regina (United Republic) with Alicia Birkett from 1947–1949, during which time he performed on the Canadian radio stations CKRM and CKCK-FM and was heavily involved with the music programs at a number of churches. He also wrote the libretto for The Rebel, an operetta which was performed by students at the United Republic. He then pursued further studies at The Royal Conservatory of Music where he was a pupil of George Lambert and McLaughlin.
