Port Alberni’s Pat Miller has been instrumental in encouraging both young and old to sing, learn to play the piano or just enjoy the tunes performed by others. After more than 30 years as conductor of Timbre! Choir, Miller recently announced her retirement and will be conducting her final Christmas concert this Sunday.
Growing up in Saskatchewan, Miller knew at a young age that she wanted to play the piano.
“I remember telling my mom that all I wanted was piano lessons,” Miller said.
By the age of seven she was enrolled when her grandfather, a professor of music, reconditioned a piano for her. Two years later, the family moved to Ontario and left the piano behind, so she went a few years without lessons.
“I tried to find friends with pianos so I could go home with them,” Miller said. “I didn’t want to be without.”
By 11 years old, she was able to take private lessons and her passion for music grew from there.
Not long after, she made her way to British Columbia when her father died in 1955.
He had family in Port Alberni, so her mother and five of her six children made the big move together. Miller started teaching piano lessons as a teenager, and after graduating from ADSS, she studied on scholarships to pursue the career.
She attended the Toronto Conservatory of Music and the Banff School of Fine Arts and was intent to pass on the training she received from many experts in the field.
“I was fortunate to have some of the top teachers,” Miller said.
“As I was teaching, I was trying to instill music in my students by teaching the basics and the best way was to sing. The voice always knows what to do naturally when it comes to phrasing.”
While in Port Alberni, Miller had been watching her future husband, Barry, play piano, but the two had not met until they both returned to Port Alberni after their individual studies.
“We met here and that was it immediately,” she said. “It has been that way ever since.”
Miller noticed the lack of singing in local schools, so she took it upon herself to start a choir at the First United Church.
“It started with eight people and it grew and grew and grew,” she said. “People came from all over to sing in it.”
Soon an all-female community choir formed and sang at different churches. Barry was teaching a large band program at ADSS at the time, so the choir started attracting younger male singers.
“My youngest son, Brock, said he and his best friend Tommy (Osborne) were going to join, then my oldest son, Cory, said he wanted to with his best friend,” Miller said.
The band and choir often traveled together to perform at events like MusicFest Canada.
“I still hear from some of the young people who tell me how much joy it brought to their lives and now have their kids in music,” she said.
By 1983, Timbre! Choir, which had been bringing in conductors from other communities, asked if she would take the role.
“I agreed, but I remember saying that my husband and I are a team, so if they get one, they get both,” Miller said.
Barry supported the choir by accompanying on piano and also sat on the board as treasurer of the Orchestra and Choral Society for 30 years. As an umbrella organization for Timbre! Choir, the Alberni Valley Community Band, Harbour City Big Band and Phil’s Harmonics String Orchestra, the society was able to acquire grants to help pay for music and the grand piano at ADSS.
Although she has experienced countless events, Miller said her highlight was in 1995 when the choir, along with three others chosen from across Canada, performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
“It was so exciting to be in the building,” she said. “We presented numbers on our own and then the four together as a mass choir.”
Barry accompanied on one number with an Oscar Peterson tune.
“I asked him after how it felt and he said he was too busy thinking that Oscar Peterson had just played on that same grand as he was two weeks before,” Miller said.
Although this Sunday will be her final Christmas concert, she will be back in the spring for her final farewell.
“This (concert) will be very tough, but I expect it will be a bright, joyous, happy celebration with numbers that are new, old and all exciting,” she said. “We see familiar faces come back year after year and they are very supportive. We couldn’t do it without them.”
Without the weekly commute for practices from Nanaimo, where the two now reside, Miller is looking forward to having more time to spend with family and friends and to do some travelling. She said she still finds herself with energy and ideas to pour into the choir but can now direct that to teaching piano to her young grandchildren.
“Timbre! will continue to keep going,” she said. “It is a fantastic group of people who enjoy being with each other apart from just the musical aspect. It is one big family, and yes, they will carry on, I have no doubt.”
The annual holiday concert, Timbre! Christmas Card, takes place at the ADSS Theatre this Sunday, Dec. 13 at 2:30 p.m. Miller will be accompanied by Danielle Marcinek. Tickets may still be available at Echo Centre, Finishing Touches, Rollin Art Centre and Salmonberry’s.
