Photographer, chiropractor, and a tenor in many Sounds Good Choirs.

Teel Miller on Chicago’s lakefront. (photo courtesy of Wil Miller)

If you sing tenor in any of the Sounds Good choirs, the singer standing next to you at your concert could well be Teel Miller. While claiming Arlington Heights as her home choir, Teel has made it her mission to sing in as many Sounds Good concerts as she can fit into her schedule. In 2022 she completed a Sounds Good Grand Slam, singing in five concerts. “I enjoy the rigor of learning the music,” she said. “Why work for weeks on the repertoire to sing just one concert?”

The Tiffany dome in Chicago’s Cultural Center featured on a giveaway for WTTW. (photo: Teel Miller)

“Teel” is a nickname for Clothield, a name that runs through generations of her family. She shares it with two aunts, and it is her daughter Alyson’s middle name. Teel’s passion for singing developed at North Shore Country Day School, where she sang in annual productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. As an undergrad at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Teel sang with the Black Student Chorus under the direction of Dr. Robert Ray. “It was quite a contrast from North Shore Country Day,” she recalls. “There was no score. We learned by ear and rote. It was super eye-opening, a new experience for me. My family, we weren’t churchgoers. [Singing with Dr. Ray] I developed a real fondness for gospel music.”

Teel returned to Chicago to finish her degree at the University of Illinois-Chicago.  Having taken a computer course and needing a job upon graduation, she applied for and was accepted into a training program in information technology at Sears. “What I liked so much about IT is there’s a system, a process.” But after a decade or more in that industry, she took a buyout at age 38 and chose a new path.

“I had a conversation with a friend about ‘What do we want to be when we grow up’?” she recalled. Teel had developed an interest in healthcare while working with her father, Dr. Warren Spencer, in his medical practice during her high school years. Recalling how a chiropractor had helped her recover from a back injury, Teel embarked on a new career, enrolling in the National University of Health Sciences (National College of Chiropractic) in Lombard. Her daughter Alyson, then in high school, was her mom’s tutor. “I had knock-down, drag-out fights with her because she wouldn’t memorize the periodic table,” Alyson recalls. The tutoring must have worked, as Teel earned her doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine, opened her own office in downtown Evanston, and practiced for 17 years.

Asked if she considers herself a healer, Teel responded, “I don’t know if I’m a healer, but I did assist people in healing. If I had to generalize, I sort of viewed myself as a coach. I would use my hands to assist you in managing pain, and coach you in understanding what you need to do or not do again. The rewards of the profession lie in the support you can give. I’m a physical person. I enjoy the touching, releasing someone from pain, correcting a problem through treatment.”

Singing came back into Teel’s life in 1988, when she joined the Skokie Concert Choir, followed by the Northbrook Community Choir and the Music Institute Chorale. Friends invited her to join Sounds Good just as Covid hit, causing disruption in many community choruses. “No one was as organized and coordinated as Sounds Good,” Teel recalled.

When asked what singing means to her, Teel recalled a car trip with her son Brenden and one of his friends. As Teel and Brenden sang along with the radio, the friend was silent. “She said, ‘I don’t sing’.”  “’Ever? Never?’ I asked. I tell the story because I still can’t believe it. I sing every day. I love singing. One of my favorite chorus experiences was when I sang in a summer choir with my daughter Lindsay. What I really enjoy about being in a chorus is the people.  And I’ve had excellent directors. That’s why I enjoy going to all the Sounds Good locations. Each director is different.”

Singing is not Teel’s only artistic pursuit. She is also a photographer who carries two cameras with her wherever she goes. “I always considered myself a hobbyist,” she says, “But now I say I’m a photographer.” Her work bears that out. Teel is pleased that one of her photos was used by WTTW to grace a luggage tag that will be offered as a premium during the station’s upcoming pledge drive. Her photography can be viewed online.

Teel has been married for more than 50 years to Wil Miller, formerly the General Counsel for ABN AMRO Bank, and they have three children and two grandchildren. Teel has deep roots in Evanston, where her mother, Mayme Spencer, an attorney, was the first Black woman elected to the city council and a leader in the effort to adopt an open housing ordinance. Like many African American parents, Teel and Wil have had “the Talk” with their son Brenden who, with a fellow student, was accosted by a police officer in his elementary school parking lot. “We had the conversation with Brendan,” Wil recalled in an interview with Evanston Rules, an online site focusing on inclusion and equity. “There’s no coming back from a bullet.”

Teel adds, “George Floyd proved that. He did everything he was supposed to do, but he still lost his life. Why do we always have to be better?  I’m a process kind of person… I am dismayed that there is not an overarching understanding that we can make the playing field level. For example, banning chokeholds [by police] should be a no-brainer.”

Reflecting on her own experience, Teel asserts, “I’m not saying I didn’t experience racism. I just rarely took it to heart. I can’t get upset if you don’t like the color of my skin. I don’t have time for that. I’ve been told I’m intimidating, but I’m just asking you to explain your position, just as you expect me to explain mine.”

Count singing and photography among the positions that Teel Miller does not have to explain: her artistry speaks for itself.