Soprano Charli Mills enjoys a varied musical career as a vocalist, conductor, and church musician. As a singer, Charli regularly appears with the Salem Bach Festival, this year soloing as Lieschen in a new English language staging of the Coffee Cantata (BWV 211) and performing Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 227).
In the past year, she has also appeared as soloist and ensemble member for Duke University Chapel’s Bach Cantata Series, performing Bach’s St. John Passion, Cantatas 48, 70, 106, 125, 131, 150, and Kuhnau’s Ich habe Lust; as Filia in Carissimi’s Jepthe at Greensboro College; as soloist for the Choral Society of Greensboro’s performances of Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Bach Cantata 140; as soloist for the Cary Community Choir's performance of Handel’s Messiah; and as soloist for Bach's Cantata 29 at First Presbyterian Church of Winston Salem. Charli is also active as an ensemble musician, singing regularly with Evensong Octet of First Presbyterian Church, and with the Winston-Salem Choral Artists, who recently performed James MacMillan’s stirring Seven Last Words.
As a church musician, Charli has served as music director at churches in North Carolina and California. She is currently Director of Traditional Music at Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in High Point, NC, where she recently conducted Taylor Scott Davis' Magnificat with chamber orchestra. In her previous position at Mount Tabor United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, she conducted Michael John Trotta’s Seven Last Words, Vivaldi's Gloria, and excerpts from Handel's Messiah. Outside of church, she has served as assistant conductor for the Piedmont Chamber Singers, assistant conductor for Piedmont Opera’s production of Il Trovatore, and as director of the women’s choir of Methodist University.
Recent vocal workshops include Chorworks at Duke, the Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute at the Aspen Music Festival, and Classic Lyric Arts Italy. She has pursued advanced studies in conducting at the Sarteano Chamber Choral Conducting Workshop and the Atlanta Conducting Institute.
Charli earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Christian Studies and a Master of Church Music from the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. As an undergraduate at Southeastern, she received the Gerald C. Cowen Outstanding College Student Award and was the winner of the Southeastern Baccalaureate Colloquium for her senior research paper on Martin Luther’s view of cosmic harmony. As a graduate student, she received the Ben. S. Johnson Church Music Award and the Raymond Bryan Brown Memorial Scholars Award, Southeastern’s most prestigious scholarship, as well as the Charles B. Keesee and Daniel R. Hoover scholarships.