Glenn Miller has been singing with Conspirare since he first performed Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil with the chamber choir many years ago. Most recently, he performed with the Symphonic Choir in May 2025 and at To Be the Sun in January 2026. After an eventful week that included canceling one concert due to weather, Glenn took time on the final day of recording to reflect on his career and Piedra de Sol.
Conspirare singers Lauren McAllister, Jonathan Woody, Glenn Miller, Enrico Lagasca (front) Dann Coakwell and Tim O’Brien (back) perform Piedra de Sol. Credit: Kenn Box
On January 28, prior to the final day of recording, Glenn shared this on Facebook:
The Conspirare recording project of Joby Talbot’s “To be the Sun” comes to a close today. It has been a long time for me since I last swam in this ocean of being, this oasis which first entered my life decades ago. I thought that chapter had long come to a close.
I sit here in silence as I pen these words, dwelling in the grace and gift of it all, this being brought back on this Road Home after all of the recent years of life, a period of being thrust into a desert, a time when garments that had been well-worn for a long time had somehow lost their actuality, garments which felt like they had been replaced by garments of doubts.
But because of this desert wandering somehow the gift of all this project, this communion, is infinitely richer, a being brought even closer and in a new dimension to The Thin Place.
The combination of the poetry we have been singing, an epic poem which is all about the journey and journey-ing, of yearning and connection, of darkness and despair and the dawn of light and revelation, the illumination of it through sonic colors and textures, the interrelationships between all of the voices and all of the people singing to bring this all to life, the Muse and Font of Life speaking and breathing and watering us through the composer, the conductor, and the shared breath of us all in this time and place.
When I came into this project I was more than a bit anxious, feeling not only the generational shift here with most of its singer personnel having entered into the fold since my last deep swim here in these waters which was well before the pandemic, as well as because of simply being daunted by the little bit solo entrusted to my sub-woofer. Has this all been my swan song here, a delayed farewell to a world which at times has felt like it had already taken place years ago? Don’t know the answer to that as we live each day as best we can into the gift of it all and the gift and mystery of each day and we never know what lies just around the corner, what epiphanies and transfigurations have yet to dawn on us. One thing is for sure for me at this stage of life, and that is that the finish line is far closer than the day on which this road in Austin was born. Be that as it may, “to everything a season” and there is a purpose for everything and a reason why life unfolds as it does which we won’t understand in full until we cross the finish line, so in the meantime we do the best we can in the mists and clouds which come our way and at times eclipse the light and darken our paths.
Grateful beyond words for the little solo moment to document something from my signature subterranean homeland and for this personal gift from the composer. My subterranean homeland certainly has had a wealth of documentation across the decades so this coda with these particular texts somehow resonates with the threads of previous phonations, especially the Song of Simeon which between Rachmaninov and Sheehan have given my soul and sub-woofer eyes to see and know something about the Light of salvation so when my time comes I can depart in peace.
So here I share something which we in Conspirarerecorded so many years ago as the road home continues to unfold as we journey towards the finish line, with the path illumined in ways heretofore beyond our thoughts, To Be the Sun. So present of course in my mind’s eye as I sang this week were those who sang on this recording, people who will always remain such treasured gifts of grace and beacons of light reflecting The Light with whom we shared a common breath, our common pains, our commons hopes and dreams.
And so re-entry will soon begin, which is always hard. Can’t imagine how one-dimensional life would be for this soul were it not for the soundscapes that have been and will continue to be one’s soul’s homeland this side of the veil which separates us from the temporal and the eternal.
Then, following the completion of the recording, Glenn shared more:
The Conspirare / Talbot project has come to its close.
This piece truly is going to make a huge splash in the choral world, a towering masterpiece of vocal orchestration and compositional cohesion in total service to this epic text on every level. Talbot’s ability to make ever appropriate use of the entire spectrum of the Conspirare singers, all in service of text, is certainly without equal or parallel.
Dare I say that it will stand as one of the very pinnacle works of our time and of at least the past fifty years.
In regards to my own vocal career and all of the mountaintops I’ve been blessed beyond words to ascend and all the opportunities to bring to life and document for posterity both landmark works and newly composed works, some for the very first time, this work rises above them all in so many ways, to be a part of choral music history. History truly has been made here.
An honor and a privilege and blessed beyond words to be a part of it all. It doesn’t get better than this. How humbling it is to share in this path.
