America250 In Concert

LEE MILLS, CONDUCTOR

Five-time winner of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Lee Mills is internationally recognized as a passionate, multifaceted and energetic conductor. In naming Mills as the ‘New Artist of the Month’ for March 2022, Musical America praised Mills’ ‘omnivorous musical temperament eager to try out highly contrasting musical styles and approaches.’

Mills is currently the Music Director of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, a post he started in the 2024-2025 season, and he is Executive Director of the Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic in California. During the pandemic, Mills was an invaluable asset to the Seattle Symphony, giving dozens of performances, including the 2020 Season Opening Gala on Seattle Symphony Live, and recording multiple albums with the orchestra. Mills also was the ‘hero of the hour’ (Seattle Times) when he stepped in at the last minute to replace Thomas Dausgaard for a performance of Hanna Lash’s world premiere double-harp concerto The Peril of Dreams and Amy Beach’s epic Gaelic Symphony in November 2021, about which Thomas May wrote in Musical America, ‘Mills emerged in his element here, showing an obvious fondness for this epic, unjustifiably neglected score. Along with a compelling dramatic arc, he elicited characterful playing for the many solos that enrich it.’

In the fall of 2022, Mills was the Solti Foundation U.S. Resident at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he worked with maestro Enrique Mazzola on the Lyric's production of Verdi's Don Carlos. The League of American Orchestras selected Mills for the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductors Preview where he conducted the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and in 2017 Mills was selected as a semi-finalist in both the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition and the Opera Royal de Wallonie-Liege International Opera Conducting Competition. In addition, he conducted alongside David Robertson in the highly acclaimed U.S. Premiere of John Cage’s Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras with the Saint Louis Symphony.

In addition to his work with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony, he has led concerts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (USA), Rochester Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony and São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, Mills was the Assistant Conductor to David Robertson for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA.

Through his project Vibe Sinfônica, initiated in 2018 in partnership with nightlife producer The Week Group in São Paulo, he has brought classical music to thousands of new listeners through performances in unusual settings. In their inaugural performance, Vibe Sinfônica performed music of Vivaldi at The Week Group’s 14th anniversary in São Paulo, playing to a crowd of over 10,000 EDM fans and opening for DJ Offer Nissim. This project was also featured in a video clip of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, created to commemorate the 15th anniversary of The Week.

​At the invitation of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop, he received the prestigious BSO-Peabody Institute Conducting Fellowship in 2011. Under the tutelage of Gustav Meier and Marin Alsop, Mills received his Graduate Performance Diploma and Artist’s Diploma in Orchestral Conducting at the Peabody Institute. He was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen during the summers of 2012 and 2013, working closely with Larry Rachleff, Robert Spano and Hugh Wolff. Mr. Mills graduated cum laude from Whitman College, where he studied with Robert Bode.

michael maliakel, vocals

Michael Maliakel is quickly gaining recognition for his refined singing in repertoire spanning opera, art song and musical theater. He was praised by the Baltimore Sun for his "smooth singing" as De Brétigny in Massenet's Manon with the Peabody Opera Theatre. Michael starred as the title role in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway. An award-winning Indian American actor and singer, Michael was featured in two PBS concert specials - "Broadway's Brightest Lights" alongside Broadway luminary Megan Hilty and "An Evening with Lerner and Loewe." He recently made his Kennedy Center debut in the critically acclaimed production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard starring Tony Award-winning Stephanie J. Block. Michael has toured North America with the 25th anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Other stage highlights include Anything Can Happen in the Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston (off-Broadway debut); Leonard Bernstein's MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers; Georg in She Loves Me (PlayMakers Repertory Company); and the record-breaking world premiere of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (Berkeley Repertory Theatre.)

A native of New Jersey, Michael received his earliest vocal training as a treble in the American Boychoir before pursuing a BM from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his solo pursuits, Michael enjoys teaching voice privately and performing regularly with some of New York City's finest vocal ensembles. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and daughter.

JOE WILSON, JR., NARRATOR

Mr. Wilson, Jr. holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre training program. He has worked on Broadway (2000 Tony Award-nominated production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and 2018 Tony Award-nominated Iceman Cometh starring Denzel Washington), off Broadway, as well as performing in regional theaters around the country. He has taught acting, art activism, and lectured at high schools, colleges, universities and at conferences locally and around the country. Today, Wilson serves as the Director of Art, Culture and Tourism for the City of Providence. He serves on the boards of the Providence Tourism Council, the Providence/Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau and WaterFire PVD.

Previously, Wilson served as a member of the Resident Acting Company and Artistic Staff at Trinity Repertory Company for 19 seasons and founded Trinity Rep’s Center for Activism and Performance. Joe has recently directed The Inheritance: Parts One and Two in the fall of 2022, the 2021 production of A Christmas Carol both at Trinity Rep, An Octoroon by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins at the Gamm Theatre in Warwick, RI, and co-directed Black Odyssey by Marcus Gardley in 2018, also at Trinity. He has been honored by the Rhode Island Black Heritage Foundation and is a Fox Foundation Fellow for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts administered by the Theatre Communications Group, New York City. 

Joe was honored by the Rhode Island Council for Humanities with its’ Public Scholar’ Award. The awards states that,” Joe Wilson Jr. is a force who uses his skills, his talent, and his passion to enact, concretely, what the humanities can do to change the world. He models on stage, in his writing, in his teaching, and in his support of many organizations what he would like to see in our world today. He is the epitome of the better world we can imagine together, and he will continue to use the humanities, the common experiences that link all of us, to pull us forward, with him, toward this better world, the one he has dedicated himself to create.” He received the 2019 Providence NAACP’s Medgar Evers Award for Public Service. Most recently, Joe was inducted into the City of Providence 2020 MLK Hall of Fame for Outstanding Service. Joe had the most fun a few years ago serving as a Grand Marshal for PVD Festival held in Providence every June. Last year, Joe was proud to be featured in the Rhode Island PBS Documentary: Black Joy. Finally, Joe is most proud to be the father of his 2 year old fur baby named Sally.