Leanne Freeman-Miller, soprano, is an Associate Professor of Voice at Drake University, teaching studio voice, vocal pedagogy, and Italian & German diction.

In May 2006, she received the Madelyn Levitt Teacher of the Year award, Drake’s highest honor awarded to faculty for teaching.  Ms. Freeman-Miller has appeared on concert stages nationally and internationally in recital, oratorio and opera. In addition, she has extensive musical theatre experience in both performing and musical direction.  Music directing credits at Drake include Cabaret, Bare, and A Little Night Music.  An advocate of new music, her compact disc, Letters from the Garden…contemporary songs by female composers, recorded with pianist Michelle Havlik-Jergens, is available from Centaur Records, Inc. of Baton Rouge, LA.  Ms. Freeman-Miller is a frequent traveler to China, having performed in Shanghai on various stages, including the acclaimed Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and at Hebei Normal and Minzu Universities in Hebei Province and Beijing.  She is currently working with Drake and Minzu on developing a strategic partnership for faculty and students.  Ms. Freeman-Miller has served on the voice faculty for the International Lyric Academy in Viterbo, Italy and has twice been a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, national honorary music society.  Ms. Freeman-Miller is also a renowned teacher in the Midwest and beyond.  Her students are frequent winners and finalists of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) competitions at both the regional and national levels, the Crescendo Music Awards, Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Quad Cities Opera Young Artist Competition, and the Singer of the Year Competition, sponsored by Shreveport Opera, among others.  Students have also been accepted to national and international summer programs, including Wolf Trap Opera, Seagle Music Colony, University of Miami, Salzburg, AIMS in Graz, Austria, Oberlin in Italy, La Musica Lyrica and International Lyric Academy, Italy, the Intermezzo program in Belgium, and many are currently singing professionally in New York and at other national venues in opera, church music, and musical theater.  Two former students have been members of the Grammy-award-winning male a cappella ensemble, Chanticleer.  She is currently Governor of the District NATS Chapter and is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician.