Nathan Siler did not want to move to New York City. His wife made him do it.

He would have been perfectly happy to remain in Oklahoma City, occasionally playing and writing with his longtime bandmates in the Fellowship Students and pursuing solo musical projects.

“I came up here because my wife (Jamie Buxton) is a music theater performer, and she said, ‘You know, I absolutely have to go to New York to make my living,'” Siler said in a recent interview from his New York City home. “When my wife told me that she wanted to leave, I absolutely did not want to come here. We fought about it a lot and I eventually relented. I had a lot of fear and anxiety because I've always loved Oklahoma and I loved playing with the Fellowship Students. But once I moved here and kind of lived here for a year and sorta got used to it, I really started to like it.”

Now, five years after the move, Siler is paying the bills as a classical singer, having made his Carnegie Hall debut last year with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Collegiate Chorale. He's also a soloist in the chamber choir Musica Viva of New York, among other gigs.