Tampa, FL : Promising career cut short for opera singer killed in Palm Harbor crash on Saturday, December 9, 2016

Life was finally starting to come together for Jason Miller.

He decided to pursue a music career full-time a few years ago, friends and family said, and in the months before his death Saturday in a headon collision on U.S. 19, he had started to establish himself in Tampa Bay's music scene as a soloist, conductor and composer.

"He'd been working so hard to make it as a musician," his longtime friend, Russell Andrade, said. "And he was doing it. He was able to make his bills and was starting to get a reputation."

Miller's life and career were cut short Saturday evening, when the Florida Highway Patrol said a Cadillac STS driven by Terrell Salerno crossed the median into the path of 36-year-old Miller's PT Cruiser on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor. Miller, on his way from a performance to meet friends for dinner, died at the scene. Salerno, 77, was taken to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, where he was in stable condition Sunday night, patrol spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins said.

At the time of his death, Miller's resume was growing: He sang tenor in the chorus of the St. Petersburg Opera Company and had just successfully auditioned for Opera Tampa. He taught music lessons at the business he owned, Gulfport Music Studio. He was a section leader for the choir at St. Wilfred Episcopal Church in Sarasota.

Miller's passion for music started young, his mother, Chris Miller, said. As a kid growing up in Seminole, he would bang around on the family keyboard. He started clarinet lessons in fourth grade and later joined Seminole High School band and orchestra. He got a full scholarship to St. Petersburg College, where he studied music.

In college, he "lived, ate and breathed music," said his former voice teacher, Linda Switzer. He joined the Madrigalians, an ensemble chosen from within the larger College Chorus, and knew shows and singers sometimes better than Switzer did. She had students who she could tell weren't dedicated enough to stick it out. But Miller wasn't one of them.

"This was his soul," she said.

He enjoyed barber shop quartet music and developed a deep love of karaoke, said Andrade, who met Miller while singing in the Madrigalians. He'd treat every karaoke night as a performance with the same group of songs that he'd perfected, his favorite Zoot Suit Riot by the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

Outside of singing, Miller was a self-identified nerd. He loved Star Wars and the TV show Dr. Who. He was a huge baseball fan who cried when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series this season. And he loved cooking, which led to a few years of culinary school.

He went on to work as a chef at the TradeWinds Island Resort on St. Pete Beach, friends said. But he missed music. He went back to St. Petersburg College in 2009 to take more music classes, said his girlfriend, Joy Pellegrino, who met him there.

Then, about 3½ years ago, amid a flurry of gigs and lessons taught out of his studio, he quit the chef job to pursue music full time.

"I was so proud of him that he was doing what he loved to do," said Pellegrino, 25, "and he wouldn't settle for anything less than what he deserved."

It took years to network and develop contacts in the industry, she said, and finances strained their relationship. She took on extra shifts working at a chocolate shop while he picked up more lessons and gigs. During a visit to New York City with the Madrigalians, he fell in love with Manhattan and set his sights on living there as a conductor, she said.

It was in the last few months that his career fell into place. The Madrigalians had recently performed a composition of his called The Little Crocodile, based on a poem in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In the St. Petersburg Opera Company, Miller had moved into the emerging artists program, stepping out from the chorus to perform more roles, said Mark Sforzini, the company's executive and artistic director.

"He had so much promise," Sforzini said. "He wanted to improve his singing and his acting on stage so much and was always willing to help out."

Sforzini saw him for the last time on Friday night as Miller was leaving after he helped set up equipment for a show. Miller told him goodbye, and that he'd see him Monday at rehearsal.


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Promising career cut short for opera singer killed in Palm Harbor crash