Will D. McMillan

"Few singers captivate an audience as quickly and convincingly as McMillan can. He presents his repertoire with a beguilingly intimate approach all his own.”

— NEW ENGLAND ENTERTAINMENT DIGEST

A singer, songwriter, and three-time IRNE-award winner, Will McMillan has soloed with pops orchestras, rock bands, and a cappella groups.

As a member of SAG-AFTRA and Equity, McMillan did commercials, voice-overs, plays and made-for-TV movies before attending Harvard and devoting himself to a music.

For several years he hosted Will & Company — a series highlighting local singers and songwriters — at the Blacksmith House in Harvard Square, earning his first 2002 IRNE award from the Independent Reviewers of New England for Best Cabaret Show in a small venue.

After taking a class called "Ukulele for the Almost Musical" in 2010, Will began writing songs in earnest using Apple's GarageBand software and his trusty laptop.

That's also when his activism and sense of urgency about climate change began to intensify. You can find his songs — including "We're Running A Big Experiment," "A Beating Heart" and "Heaven Here On Planet Earth" — on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and other digital music platforms.

He currently tours around New England with programs of his original songs as well as musical programs highlighting lyricists and composers such as Dorothy Fields, Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, the Gershwin Brothers, Cole Porter and Burt Bacharach.

He has also performs and records with singer Carole Bundy and singer/pianist/songwriter Molly Ruggles as a trio featuring original and cover songs which you can also find on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and other digital music platforms

McMillan performed with singer Bobbi Carrey for over a decade in shows about Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Broadway, Love, Business, Harmony, and Oscar-winning songs. They released a CD, IF I LOVED YOU, which can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and other digital music platforms. Their annual sold out performances at Scullers Jazz Club "transported listeners into a daydream, blurring the lines between romance, wit and melancholy" — Boston Herald.

He has performed at Sculler Jazz Club (Boston), 54 Below (New York), the Westbeth Performance Center (New York), the Ocean's Inn (Provincetown, MA), the Hi-Hat Club (Providence, RI), The Inn on Newfound Lake (Bridgewater, NH), Spring Island (off the coast of SC), Star Island (off the coast of NH) and Yin Par Le Garcon Chinois (Shanghai).

McMillan was a standby for the role of Theo in the original production of PIPPIN on Broadway.

He also co-starred in made-for-TV movies as a child and teenager, including GOLDENROD aka GLORY DAYS with Donald Pleasance, THE FOUR OF US with Barbara Feldon, and BOUND FOR FREEDOM with Fred Gwynne (which you can watch on YouTube...)

As a Harvard undergraduate, Will starred in a theatrical revue of David Bowie songs, directed an acclaimed synthesis of THE BREASTS OF TIRESIAS and THE GAS HEART in the Loeb Experimental Theater, and sang with an a cappella group, the HARVARD DIN & TONICS. He later worked in pop/rock bands — CUE, ADULT CHILDREN OF HETEROSEXUALS and Q-SET — and in a folk duo, Jon and Will, before discovering jazz and cabaret.