Miles Dayton Fish : A composed career
Posted on Sunday, December 9, 2007
SELF PORTRAIT Date, place of birth: June 28, 1947, Star City Family: wife Byretta, daughters Milo Milton and Emily Fish and sons Jason, Spencer and Nicholas Fish My greatest strength is the ability to maintain a humorous outlook on the world around me. My greatest weakness is that I’m too easy when it comes to agreeing to things. I’m one of those guys that if you ask me to do anything at least two weeks in advance, I’ll probably say, “Yes.” The one thing I’ve learned in life is the fact that nothing stays the same. The last book I read was The Renaissance by Paul Johnson. The classical composer I admire most is Johann Sebastian Bach. My favorite American composers are Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. I collect paintings, wine from Tuscany and shopping bags from museum gift shops. My favorite large city is Florence, Italy. I am never without my Treo and iPod. The item that can always be found in my fridge is skim milk. The best advice I ever received was to never criticize people on how they spend their money or raise their children. My pet peeve is drivers in the left lane. One word to sum me up: happy
BENTONVILLE —
Miles Fish has a clear
memory of the first
time he heard the
“Amen Chorus” of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. He was a senior at the University of Arkansas and stayed up all night listening to the piece over and over. He knew then he was meant to be a conductor, but it took him two more decades to discover that music did not just have to be a part of his life, it could be his entire life. “I was actually 45 when I started working full time as a musician,” he says. “I want all those who are thinking ‘Is it too late for me to do what I truly want to do ?’ to know it certainly wasn’t for me.” He’s now the music director and conductor for the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Benton County and the Civic Symphony Chorus of Benton County. He is also the music director for the First United Methodist Church in Bentonville and a music instructor at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
He sees himself primarily as an entertainer and an interpreter of music. Although classical is his favorite genre, he’s also a fan of rock ’n’ roll, bluegrass and popular music, such as songs by Frank Sinatra.
From his life experiences he believes that a person cannot be truly successful unless he has a passion for whatever they are doing. And his teaching style reflects that passion. He is constantly moving while lecturing, making emphatic statements with his hands. He is constantly engaging his students with questions, song clips and participation exercises, and he often sits beside a student in order to discuss an exercise or inquire about progress.
The Rev. Rex Dickey, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, says Fish brings that same enthusiasm to everything he does. He says his friend also has a professionalism that attracts other gifted musicians to perform at the church.
Friend and Civic Symphony pianist Lyndon Meyer says Fish is a director who brings musicians together to perform concerts that are enjoyable and educational for the crowd and all those involved. He describes Fish as studied, optimistic, clear, expressive and diplomatic. Fish works tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to bring something great to the community.
“He works well with musicians from every different background, amateurs and professionals, and he conducts in a way that speaks to them all and moves them all,” Meyer says.
Fish has demonstrated to Meyer and other students that with the right perseverance, skills and hard work, it is very possible to make a career in music.
FOR THE PEOPLE The idea for the Civic Symphony’s orchestra and chorus was hatched about seven years ago, beginning with discussions between Fish and key personnel at Northwest Arkansas Community College. In the summer of 2001, Fish spread the word among musicians in the area that there would soon be a start-up orchestra serving Benton County. The whole thing took off from there.
Today the orchestra is comprised of 75 musicians, the majority of whom are professional musicians. The group rehearses at the community college and performs the majority of its concerts at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville. Up next is a performance in March that will include Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Students from the University of Arkansas and the community college can rehearse with the civic orchestra for class credit. Some students are picked to perform with the orchestra.
Anita Jones, dean for communications and arts at Northwest Arkansas Community College, says Fish laid the groundwork for the civic symphony, gave the program an identity and has been synonymous with its growth. She says Fish is known for his energy, talent and enthusiasm.
“He just makes life fun,” she says. “He brings a joy to teaching and every endeavor.”
Music chairman Steve Cooper describes Fish as a “tornado of activity.” He says Fish is always coming up with new ideas and innovative concepts for the civic symphony’s programming. His heart is as big as his imagination and his passion has been invaluable to the program.
“The musicians would say they don’t come back just for the music, but also because of what he offers and how he makes it come alive for them,” Cooper says. The orchestra’s success is due in part to the quality of music, the careful selection of programming, the affordability of tickets and the support of its board. The board handles all the nonmusical details of operating the symphony. Fish wants the orchestra to be a resource for the entire community and offers events such as seasonal pops concerts on Bentonville’s square.
MUSICAL ANOMALY Fish came from a long line of lumbermen and merchants. He was reared in the small town of Star City, a farming community with a population of less than 3, 000. Sports — not music — were the traditional interest for boys. His parents, Dayton and Anna Delle Fish, ran the local lumber mill and hardware store. Fish and his two younger sisters grew up in the store. “Some of my fondest memories were really just growing up in Star City,” he says. “Everybody knows everybody else and you feel very safe and very secure.” Anna Delle Fish says her son’s attraction to music was apparent early on, although neither she nor his father were musicians.
“If he would go to anyone’s house who had a piano, he would jump up there and just play,” she says. “People would ask me how long he had played the piano and I would say, ‘I think he started working his fingers when he was born. ’”
Fish recalls playing on a small toy piano about age 3. He started taking piano lessons when he was 5, riding his bike over to his aunt and uncle’s home every day for a year to practice on their piano. His parents bought him his first full-size piano at the urging of his piano teacher.
“There was no decision involved in being a musician, I just was one,” he says.
He participated in all of the “expected stuff,” like football and basketball, though he continued to play the piano through high school. He also sang baritone in the high school choir and played clarinet in the band and banjo in a folk trio.
Fish says he never considered music as a possible career. He believed it was something you did on the side while holding down a full-time job. While earning a bachelor’s degree in speech and journalism at the UA, he continued to take private piano lessons, sang in the university chorus and played in the Sigma Nu Band.
After college he enlisted in the Navy. While waiting on his active-duty assignment, he took a job as a reporter for the Pine Bluff Daily News. He had become acquainted with the former Byretta Hurst while at the UA, and then her brother set them up on a date.
“I decided to be polite and go along with the date,” he says. “We were about halfway through it when I just knew, ‘ There is something going on here. ’”
Byretta says she was impressed by his looks and his confidence.
“He was always in command of the situation. I always felt comfortable with him, and everybody in my family loved him,” she says.
They continued a longdistance relationship for two years, and went on only a handful of dates. He was stationed in Hawaii and was preparing for a deployment to Vietnam when she accompanied his family for a visit at Christmas.
“I knew from the moment she stepped off the plane that I was going to ask her to marry me.”
They discussed marriage during that visit, then he proposed after his eight months in Vietnam. The couple wed Sept. 2, 1972, at First United Methodist Church in her hometown of Hot Springs.
The couple lived in Hawaii and California for a few months while he completed his commitment to the Navy. They then moved back to Star City to join the family business and begin working on a family.
Daughter Milo and sons Jason, Spencer and Nicholas were born between 1973 and 1978. Daughter Emily completed the family in 1983.
Friday nights became “pallet night,” when the kids would bring their blankets and pillows into their parents’ room and spend the night. Like Fish, his children grew up in the family store, but they associated their dad with the piano. “I remember falling asleep in my bed at night and hearing him play the piano,” Emily Fish says. “It was very soothing and familiar and one of my fondest memories from childhood.” When he and his wife moved back to Star City, he became music director at the local Methodist church and has continued to work with different Methodist churches as music director ever since. Fish also continued writing. He composed songs as well as full-length stage musicals,
REALIZING A DREAM Fish, who ran the family’s second store in Dumas for 10 years, liked the atmosphere of the hardware store and providing a good service to his clients. But he didn’t have the passion for his job that he had for the other aspects of his life. “While I was working the family business, it was those other things that I couldn’t wait to get off work to do,” he says. He and his family decided to sell the hardware store in Dumas in 1990, when the area’s farm-based economy began to decline. With the sale of the store came a key turning point for Fish. He needed a job fast and fell back on his life’s passion — music.
“When I sold the store, I knew the only thing I could do and be successful at was music.” He took a part-time job as a teacher and choir director at Dumas High School. Times were tough financially — he had children in college — but he held fast to the belief that he was doing what was right for him and his family. He continued to work while earning a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Fish then took an assistantship at what is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe, driving from Dumas to Monroe for classes while continuing his job as director of music at the Methodist church. He completed his graduate work in conducting with honors, then followed with two years as the music director for Cabot United Methodist Church. Byretta Fish says she admires her husband’s ability to focus on a goal and accomplish it. “Once he makes up his mind about what he wants to do, he does it,” she says. In 1996, First United Methodist Church of Bentonville recruited him to be its music director, and Northwest Arkansas Community College hired him as a teacher in its music department. When the family moved to Northwest Arkansas, Byretta gave up her longtime state job to become the manager for Superior Senior Care, an in-home caregiver agency located in Rogers.
Spencer Fish says he and his siblings wish they were more musically inclined and that his father never forced the issue. He encouraged them instead to seek whatever makes them happy.
“We have all learned that while we have to pay the bills, it’s not enough to do just that. We have to find that thing we are passionate about,” says Emily Fish.
There’s still hope, says Miles Fish. His 5-year-old grandson Eli has his own little stick and enjoys “conducting” alongside his grandpa.
A HEALTHY PASSION Fish’s “instrument” is the choir and the orchestra that he directs. His days typically run from 8 a. m. until about 9 p. m. and are filled with classes and rehearsals. He is currently spending a lot of time helping First United Methodist Church in Bentonville prepare for its Christmas performance Dec. 16. Faith has always had a major role in his life. He considers himself “hired into the fold” and has found that the Methodist denomination suits him. His parents, all his children and two of his three grandchildren now also live in Northwest Arkansas. The family usually gathers for dinner on Friday nights, and Saturday and Sunday nights are reserved as “popcorn and movie” nights.
Fish does not write much anymore and says he misses it. His other loves occupy so much time that other interests have fallen by the wayside.
“I’m about the most onedimensional guy you’ll ever meet,” he jokes.
Every wall of his and Byretta’s four-bedroom home in The Orchards subdivision is covered in art, mostly originals, and many of the pieces from local artists. The collection is mostly modern and abstract pieces with a handful of impressionistic works scattered throughout. The home also reflects the couple’s love of Italy, where Fish has taught summer courses at the University of Siena for the past four years. Racks with bottles of wine are stored throughout the house, mostly chiantis of the Ruffino, Brunello or Brolio brands.
For many years Fish enjoyed running, but a heart attack in November 2006 cost him 20 percent of his heart capacity and has relegated him to less strenuous exercise. He believes the heart attack was genetically linked (his father had his first heart attack at about the same age ) but also believes his good health probably saved his life.
He has since worked hard to reduce stress and tries to go to sleep at more reasonable hours than his “night-owl” tendencies previously allowed. He can no longer teach the demanding summer course, which included 10 concerts within the four weeks, but this year he is hoping instead to do summer studies in conducting at Siena’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
For the next few weeks, his focus will be on the Christmas season and all the wonderful music it brings. He says this time of the year just helps to reinforce the decision he made back in 1990 to turn his life in a different direction.
“I’m one of those guys who gets up every day and thinks ‘ I just can’t wait to get to work. ’”
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