Deborah Miles-Johnson comes from a musical family in London. Her grandmother sang under Gustav Holst at St Pauls Girls School and her brother played piano duets with him in a cellar during the Air Raids of WW1. Deborah studied at the RCM as a flautist and pianist, however, whilst there she sang in the chorus of Bach's Bminor mass, a life changing experience and so took some singing lessons. Following some years singing as an amateur (mainly G&S with Imperial College Operatic Society) and teaching the flute, she subsequently sang with the Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars and also the BBC Singers with whom she was a staff member for 10years, performing a wide range of solos for Radio 3. 

As an amateur singer, one of her first performances was under Leonard Bernstein in Stravinky's Les Noces but she has now worked with many more of the world’s leading conductors; both Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Andrew Davies performing Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles and Sir Antonio Pappano as one of the Converse in the EMI recording of Puccini's Suor Angelica.

Active in the contemporary repertoire, she was one of the secretaries in the first London performance of Nixon in China by John Adams with Kent Nagano and the LSO at the Barbican; Satyagraha by Philip Glass at the Festival Hall in London. She made her Wigmore Hall debut performing Upon Silence by George Benjamin with the viol group Fretwork following performances in Geneva.

Deborah  was frequently called upon to perform at very short notice. She gave the first performance of Brian Elias' Laments under Tadaaki Otaka with BBCSO, the role of Caroline in Henze’s ‘Elegy for Young Lovers’ for Radio France and Jean Barraqué’s …au dela du hasard with Klangforum in Vienna – both for broadcast and a commercial recording. Another was the lead role in Handel’s Il Parnasso in Festa, learnt in 3 days and broadcast by the BBC.

Amongst many solo performances was Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the English Concert under Trevor Pinnock in concerts around Europe, Istanbul and Japan. She performed Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall and gave a performance of Das Rheingold (Fricka) in concert in Oxford. She also sang the little known Messa per Rossini (by thirteen Italian composers including Verdi) in St Albans Abbey. 

Commercial recordings include an excerpt from Carmen with Gerald Finlay and the Missa Brevis in D and Bflat by Mozart for Naxos. She recorded the role of Betty Doxy in the Britten/Gay arrangement of The Beggars Opera,and the alto solo in Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater.

She sings regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as a member of the Extra Chorus. Recent productions include Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Puccini's Turandot, Tannhäuser(Wagner), The Nose (Shostakovich), Andrea Chènier (Giordano) and Wagner's Die Meistersinger. She also performed alongside the dancer Carlos Acosta in his final performance of 'Carmen', a ballet he choreographed using singers as part of the production. In March 2020 she was called in to take part in 'Jenufa' by Janacek, but was sadly locked down at the end of rehearsals. 

Her diverse musical life includes performing on the sound track of many of the major films of recent years - Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Dumbo and the latest Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean films.