NEWS
Pasadena Symphony Unveils Its 2025-26 Season: Bold Classics and New Voices
Brett Mitchell will lead his second season as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony at the Ambassador Auditorium from November 2025 through May 2026. (Photo by Tim Sullens)
PASADENA — The Pasadena Symphony has announced its 2025-26 season, Brett Mitchell’s second as Music Director. Pasadena Now has published an extensive article about this announcement:
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PASADENA SYMPHONY UNVEILS ITS 2025-26 SEASON: BOLD CLASSICS AND NEW VOICES
Brett Mitchell's sophomore season as Music Director promises a delicate balance of orchestral staples and contemporary voices
In Southern California’s classical music scene, the Pasadena Symphony has long occupied a position of understated elegance—neither flashy nor provincial, but rather a thoughtful custodian of orchestral tradition. Now, with Brett Mitchell entering his second season as Music Director, the orchestra appears poised for a subtle yet significant transformation. The recently announced 2025-26 season suggests a conductor and ensemble seeking to establish a dialogue between the canonical and the contemporary, between European tradition and American innovation.
The season opens on November 8th with the appropriately titled “Symphonie Fantastique!” program, featuring Berlioz’s hallucinatory masterpiece alongside Ravel’s effervescent Piano Concerto in G Major, performed by Orion Weiss, a pianist whose interpretive choices often bring fresh perspective to familiar works.
The inclusion of Jim Self’s “Tour de Force” signals Mitchell’s interest in expanding the orchestral repertoire beyond the expected, though one wonders if this particular piece will offer substantive musical rewards or merely serve as an obligatory nod to living composers.
The January program pairs Mendelssohn’s evocative “Scottish” Symphony and “Hebrides Overture” with Edgar Meyer’s Violin Concerto, to be performed by Tessa Lark. Meyer, whose compositional voice bridges classical formalism with American vernacular traditions, represents a shrewd programming choice—familiar enough to avoid alienating subscription-base conservatives while still offering something beyond the standard repertoire.
February 21st brings a program featuring Tchaikovsky’s profound “Pathétique” Symphony, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 performed by Michelle Cann, and Jeffrey Nytch’s “Beacon”—another example of Mitchell’s commitment to showcasing contemporary voices alongside canonical masterworks.
Perhaps most intriguing is the March 21st concert featuring Juan Pablo Contreras as both composer and special guest for his Symphony No. 1, a co-commission by the orchestra.
Contreras, whose work often explores his Mexican heritage through classical forms, will share the program with Bernstein’s “Three Variations from Fancy Free” and Dvořák’s perennial “New World” Symphony—a pairing that seems designed to invite reflection on musical representations of American identity across different eras and cultural perspectives.
April 25th presents Beethoven’s revolutionary “Eroica” Symphony alongside Quinn Mason’s thematically related “Heroic Overture (Overtura Eroica)” and Jennifer Higdon’s Cello Concerto, performed by Julian Schwarz in its West Coast première—further evidence of Mitchell’s interest in creating meaningful dialogues between established masterpieces and contemporary compositions.
The season concludes with “America @ 250” on May 30th, a program that reads initially like a Fourth of July concert displaced to Memorial Day weekend. Yet the inclusion of Jonathan Leshnoff’s “Rhapsody on ‘America'” (receiving its West Coast première and co-commissioned by the orchestra) alongside selections from John Williams’ “American Journey,” Copland’s “Appalachian Spring Suite” and “Lincoln Portrait” suggests a more thoughtful engagement with national musical identity than mere patriotic spectacle. Pianist Joyce Yang joins the orchestra for this exploration of American musical vernacular.
Throughout the season, Mitchell has assembled an impressive roster of soloists and programming that consistently pairs orchestral warhorses with works by living composers.
What emerges is a portrait of an orchestra and conductor navigating the perennial challenge facing American symphonic institutions: how to honor the European classical tradition while establishing a distinct and contemporary American orchestral identity. Mitchell’s approach appears to be one of gentle evolution rather than radical reinvention—introducing new works alongside familiar masterpieces, inviting audiences to discover connections between centuries and continents.
Whether Mitchell’s vision will ultimately lead to a distinctive institutional identity remains to be seen, but his sophomore season suggests a promising direction: neither hidebound by tradition nor recklessly innovative, but attentive to both the past and future of orchestral music in America.
Music Director Brett Mitchell onstage at the Pasadena Symphony’s home of the Ambassador Auditorium, the “Carnegie Hall of the West.” (Photo by Tim Sullens)
Feature: ‘Brett Mitchell Pays Tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek with Emotional Piano Performance’
‘Brett Mitchell Pays Tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek with Emotional Piano Performance’
Italian Star Trek news magazine ExtraTrek has published an extensive feature about Brett Mitchell’s film music covers on his YouTube channel. The following excerpts are translated from the original Italian:
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BRETT MITCHELL PAYS TRIBUTE TO LEONARD NIMOY AND STAR TREK WITH EMOTIONAL PIANO PERFORMANCE
Brett Mitchell's YouTube channel features piano-based reinterpretations of famous film scores, celebrating iconic characters and creating an immersive musical experience
Brett Mitchell, a renowned conductor and pianist, has developed a special relationship with film and television music over the years, combining his interpretative sensitivity with his passion for soundtracks. On his YouTube channel, active since 2006, Mitchell offers original arrangements ranging from orchestral classics to the most iconic soundtracks in pop culture.
One of his most touching tributes is the video Horner: Spock (Brett Mitchell, piano), in which he performs on the piano an arrangement of James Horner ’s Spock theme, taken from the soundtrack of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This song, full of emotion and depth, is a perfect tribute to the figure of Leonard Nimoy and his iconic character, remembered for his wisdom, his stoicism and his famous motto: Live long and prosper. A few days ago Mitchell offered this piece on the day in which the actor, interpreter of the most famous Vulcan of the franchise, would have turned 94.
A tribute full of meaning
Mitchell's performance is notable for the delicacy with which he manages to render the emotional nuances of Horner's piece. The arrangement, entirely for piano, captures the melancholy and grandeur of Spock, evoking the most touching scenes of the film. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a fundamental chapter of the saga, made immortal by the dramatic scene of Spock 's death, accompanied by Horner's music.
This tribute goes beyond a simple musical performance: it is a gesture of love towards a character who has marked generations of fans and who continues to be one of the most beloved figures of the Star Trek franchise.
Music and Cinema: The Perfect Combination on Brett Mitchell's Channel
Mitchell's work doesn't stop with Spock . His channel is a veritable archive of great soundtracks reinterpreted with sensitivity and mastery. Staying on the subject of Star Trek, we can't help but mention another example of his talent: the piano arrangement of A Good Start, a piece composed by Jerry Goldsmith for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This piece, which accompanies the iconic final sequence of the film, is a hymn to the wonder of space exploration and the sense of adventure that has always characterized the saga.
The artist doesn't just play music: in his videos he often synchronizes the music with the original scenes, offering an immersive experience that fuses the power of the soundtrack with the visual narrative.
In addition to the two videos mentioned, Mitchell's channel features other highly valuable performances, such as:
• Angelo Badalamenti: Twin Peaks Theme (Piano Cover) (Brett Mitchell, piano), a touching reinterpretation of the famous theme from the Twin Peaks series, characterized by dreamlike and melancholic atmospheres.
• John Williams: AI Artificial Intelligence (Brett Mitchell, piano), an intense and emotionally charged performance of Williams’s score for Steven Spielberg’s film, which perfectly captures the film’s sense of wonder and melancholy.
A journey through music and memory
Visit his YouTube channel and subscribe to not miss all his new reinterpretations and to enjoy many other songs already published. For those who love cinema, soundtracks and classical music, his YouTube channel is a must-see, where every note tells a timeless story.
Preview: ‘In Pasadena today, Mozart’s Turkish delight takes center stage’
Music Director Brett Mitchell (center) will lead the Pasadena Symphony this weekend in music by Adolphus Hailstork (left), and will collaborate with violinist Stefan Jackiw (right) on Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5.
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s subscription concerts with the Pasadena Symphony this weekend:
At first glance, the Pasadena Symphony’s program today might appear conventionally classical: Mozart, Prokofiev, Stravinsky. But beneath this seemingly traditional façade lies a thoughtfully curated journey through musical history—from contemporary reflections on Baroque sensibilities to neoclassical reimaginings—all anchored by Mozart’s inventive Violin Concerto No. 5, the so-called “Turkish.”
Under the baton of Brett Mitchell, who assumed leadership of the Pasadena Symphony in April 2024 (only the sixth music director in the orchestra’s 97-year history), today’s performances at Ambassador Auditorium—at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.—promise to showcase both the ensemble’s evolving artistic vision and violinist Stefan Jackiw’s remarkable interpretive gifts.
The centerpiece, Mozart’s A-major concerto, remains one of the composer’s most intriguing instrumental works. Composed in 1775 when Mozart was just 19, it demonstrates his growing compositional sophistication. The concerto’s nickname derives from its finale, where Mozart dramatically shifts from A major to A minor, introducing what his European contemporaries perceived as exotically “Turkish” elements: unison chromatic crescendos, repetitive phrases, and col legno playing (striking strings with the wood rather than hair of the bow)—techniques that must have seemed thrillingly foreign to 18th-century Salzburg audiences. As music scholar Tchaikovsky noted, this piece represents “the highest, culminating point to which beauty has reached in the sphere of music.”
Jackiw, who began playing violin at age four and debuted professionally with the Boston Pops at 12, brings particular sensitivity to this repertoire. Now 39, the Korean-German American violinist has built a reputation for combining technical brilliance with profound emotional intelligence. “In just a few bars of Mozart, you encounter an entire universe of feeling,” Jackiw once observed about the concerto’s Adagio movement, noting the “huge range of emotions contained in just a few bars” particularly in the slow movement.
Mitchell’s programming reveals curatorial acumen. The concert opens with Adolphus Hailstork’s Baroque Suite, a contemporary work filtering modern compositional techniques through historical forms, before proceeding to Mozart’s concerto with Jackiw as soloist. The program continues with Prokofiev’s impeccably crafted Classical Symphony before concluding with Stravinsky’s Suite from Pulcinella.
As Mitchell’s inaugural season unfolds, today’s concerts offer a compelling glimpse of his artistic vision—one that respects tradition while embracing innovation. Known for his “warm, down-to-earth demeanor” and ability to connect with audiences through insightful musical interpretations
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to debut with Nashville Symphony on 2025-26 classical series
NASHVILLE — The Nashville Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will make his debut on their 2025-26 classical subscription series, leading the following program at Schermerhorn Symphony Center on May 15 and 16, 2026:
BARBER - Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
EDGAR MEYER - Bass Concerto No. 2 (for Double Bass and Percussion)
Edgar Meyer, double bass | Sam Bacco, percussion
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’
To learn more, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to lead opening weekend of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2025 Blossom Music Festival
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra’s opening weekend of the 2025 Blossom Music Festival. (Photograph by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that, for the third time in the past five seasons, Brett Mitchell will lead the opening weekend of performances at the 2025 Blossom Music Festival.
On Saturday, July 5 and Sunday, July 6, Mr. Mitchell will lead John Williams’s Oscar- and Grammy-nominated score for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while the original film plays live on the big screen.
For tickets and more information, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to lead Houston Symphony’s 2025 holiday festival
Brett Mitchell will lead half a dozen public performances as part of the Houston Symphony’s 2025 holiday festival. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
HOUSTON — The Houston Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will lead its holiday festival during the 2025-26 concert season.
Mr. Mitchell will conduct four performances of Very Merry POPS from Thursday, December 11 through Sunday, December 14, featuring vocalist Ali Stroker and the Houston Symphony Chorus.
He will also lead two performances of Oh, What Fun! A Holiday Concert for Kids on Saturday, December 13.
Mr. Mitchell will also lead several private performances with the orchestra during the holiday season.
For complete details, please visit the orchestra’s 2025-26 season announcement.
Sunriver Music Festival announces 2025 season, Brett Mitchell’s fourth as Artistic Director & Conductor
SUNRIVER, Ore. — The Sunriver Music Festival has announced details of its 2025 summer season, Brett Mitchell’s fourth as Artistic Director & Conductor and the organization’s 48th:
The Summer Festival opens August 2 at the iconic Tower Theatre in downtown Bend and closes August 13 at Sunriver Resort’s historic Great Hall. Four classical concerts, one pops concert, a brilliant solo piano recital and a Family Concert will be presented. Featured artists include pianist Stewart Goodyear, cellist Mark Kosower, and Festival concertmaster Yi Zhao.
The classical season will consist of the following four programs:
THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
WILLIAM BOLCOM - Commedia for (Almost) 18th-Century Orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY - Variations on a Rococo Theme
Mark Kosower, cello
MOZART - Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
STRAVINSKY - Danses Concertantes
A FRENCH SOIRÉE
DUKAS - Fanfare from La Péri
RAVEL - Piano Concerto in G Major
Stewart Goodyear, piano
FAURÉ - Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande
BIZET - Selections from Carmen
VIENNA WAITS FOR YOU
HAYDN - Symphony No. 96, ‘Miracle’
MOZART - Piano Concerto TBD
2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition medalist
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 5
THE LEIPZIG CONNECTION
SCHUMANN - Manfred Overture
MENDELSSOHN - Violin Concerto
Yi Zhao, violin
BACH (arr. Styles) - Toccata and Fugue in D minor
BACH - Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major
For complete repertoire, see our Upcoming Events page, and visit sunrivermusic.org to learn more.
News: Pasadena Symphony Helps Community Grieve and Give After Fires
Pasadena Symphony music director Brett Mitchell stands in front of the orchestra’s home, the Ambassador Auditorium, which was undamaged during the recent wildfires in Southern California. (Photo by Tim Sullens)
PASADENA — Violinist.com has published a story about the Pasadena Symphony’s recent subscription concerts—led by music director Brett Mitchell—in the wake of the destructive wildfires that ravaged the community. Half a dozen Pasadena Symphony musicians and two board members lost their homes in the blaze.
The concert was about to begin last Saturday, and I looked across the stage at my colleague Irina Voloshina, sitting right by the audience in the first violins. I could see she was having a hard time holding back the tears.
Pasadena Symphony conductor Brett Mitchell was finishing his opening words, acknowledging that it had been a very difficult few weeks in the community of Pasadena and Altadena, California, where the Eaton Canyon fire had reduced a huge portion of the area to rubble and ash over the course of one night.
Irina's home had burned to the ground during the fire…
Back on stage - Brett was telling the audience that we were about to play one of the most heart-wrenching pieces of music ever written, Barber's "Adagio for Strings." The piece had been added to the program at the last minute, in acknowledgment of the community's devastating losses.
Irina was looking away from the audience, trying to keep it together to play this gut-wrenching music. I confess that I questioned this choice, earlier in the week. How on Earth could we play this music? How could anyone listen to it? To me it felt like too much - too sad for people who have lost too much.
But during the week, Brett did explain the choice: "I never program this piece for a regular concert. It is only when something like this happens," he told us. He gently encouraged us to play the Barber in certain ways - at the beginning, just sneak in, let the sound come from absolutely nothing. Toward the end of the piece is an immense apotheosis, he told us to use as many bows as we wanted, and he would hold that note for as long as he possibly dared. And after that note - a silence, followed by the quietest pianissimo we could manage. Stillness and grief. "I've studied this music for years, put notes in the score," he said during rehearsal. "In this place, I wrote...," he hesitated a little, "'Ashen.' Just devastated."
"Ashen" - ? Part of me was thinking, "Why would you say this to us? How could you even GO THERE?" Three musicians in the orchestra had lost their homes to the fire. Other musicians had been evacuated and displaced. Any of us living in the area were grieving - for our beautiful Altadena and the people who made it that way, now bearing unthinkable hardship.
Then again...wasn't this exactly what this music was saying? How can we NOT go there? Ashen. I had to fight my own tears as we continued to rehearse that day.
As Brett continued his spoken introduction at the concert, Irina was looking away from the audience, she was in fact looking straight in my direction. I felt desperate to send her a sign - I put hand over my heart. I think we were all trying to send strength to her, and to Carrie Kennedy, sitting next to her, and to Joel Pargman, married violinists who also had lost their homes to the fire.
And so we played Barber's Adagio for Strings - we traveled together through that music's numb emptiness and through its wailing grief, back to something still and quiet, a glimmer of hope. The audience seemed to travel with us.
The rest of the program was actually quite upbeat - Jessie Montgomery's "Starburst," Florence Price's jubilant Piano Concerto in One Movement, and Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony. I had wondered about that, too. Was this music too happy for the occasion? Brett had originally programed it to "give everyone a boost" during the dark days of January. "I had no idea, what a boost we would all need," he said at the concert.
It was actually just perfect. Jessie's piece was a burst of energy after the Barber. Florence Price's concerto was so joyful, with pianist Inon Barnatan as our affable and sure-handed soloist. More than a few of us were singing its catchy "juba" dance tune as we exited the stage for intermission. And closing with the Mozart - it's a symphony that feels like a rescue mission for the soul, an infusion of beauty, where spirit triumphs over the dark shadows, every time. I had the sense that we were simply enjoying its humor, cleverness and bright energy. Mozart was familiar territory, in the face of a world that felt so changed.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Review: ‘Pasadena Symphony Warms to New Music Director’
Brett Mitchell stands in front of the Pasadena Symphony’s home, the Ambassador Auditorium. (Photo by Tim Sullens)
PASADENA — San Francisco Classical Voice has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s recent subscription program with the Pasadena Symphony:
A new era began at the Pasadena Symphony this season with the arrival of Brett Mitchell as music director… Mitchell is only the sixth music director in the band’s 97-year history, an impressive record of longevity and continuity in a business that typically sees much more turnover at the top…
Judging by the orchestra’s solid performance on Saturday, Jan. 25, at Ambassador Auditorium — the third subscription concert of Mitchell’s inaugural season — the organization is in competent professional and musical hands. An engaging communicator who has already forged a congenial rapport with both the musicians and the audience, Mitchell, who formerly led the Colorado Symphony, created an informal and welcoming atmosphere for this eclectic program of works by Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price, and Mozart. It will take time, of course, to judge Mitchell’s musical vision for the orchestra, which has in the last few years been staging a strong recovery from financial strain and the COVID shutdown.
In brief remarks, he acknowledged the devastating impact of the terrible fires that recently ravaged nearby Altadena and parts of Pasadena and paid tribute to first responders and fire department personnel who had been invited to attend. A heartfelt, if glacially slow, performance of Samuel Barber’s funereal Adagio for Strings followed, an appropriate addition to the scheduled program. “America’s semi-official music for mourning,” as NPR writer Anastasia Tsioulcas has called it, this arrangement for string orchestra of the second movement of the composer’s 1936 String Quartet, Op. 11, has been heard after many tragic occasions.
Another work for string orchestra, Montgomery’s exuberant and cheerful Starburst, cleared the air. Montgomery has said that this energetic curtain-raiser lasting just a little over three minutes is meant to “create a multidimensional soundscape” inspired by the dazzling birth of new stars, represented by jabbing unison string lines and a pulsing rhythmic undercurrent. The Pasadena Symphony strings rose to the occasion…
To read the complete review, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell hosts ‘Classical Californians’
Brett Mitchell hosts this week’s episode of Classical Californians on KUSC in Los Angeles and KDFC in San Francisco.
LOS ANGELES — Brett Mitchell is the host of this week’s episode of Classical Californians, a co-production of KUSC in Los Angeles and KDFC in San Francisco. From the official show notes:
This week’s Classical Californian is Brett Mitchell, the new Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony. In an episode recorded before the recent fires, he shares some of the pieces that inspired his love for music as he was growing up. He’s chosen music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and John Williams. (Note that for their January 25th concerts at the Ambassador Auditorium, the Pasadena Symphony will be offering free tickets to first responders, and those who have been displaced, evacuated or experienced loss during the fires. There’s more information here.)
Listen the complete episode on KUSC or KDFC, or stream it below.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Welcomes New Music Director with Mozart’s Jupiter and Price Concerto’
Brett Mitchell to lead program featuring 2024 Grammy winner Montgomery's 'Starburst' in January performances (Photo credit: Roger Mastroianni)
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s third subscription weekend as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
The Pasadena Symphony will present its [third weekend of] concerts under newly appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, featuring Mozart’s final symphony alongside works by Florence Price and Jessie Montgomery, at the Ambassador Auditorium.
Mitchell, who was named to the position in March 2024, will conduct two performances on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., marking the beginning of his five-year term with the orchestra.
The program opens with “Starburst” by Jessie Montgomery, a 2024 Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator whose music has been praised by The Washington Post as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life.”
Montgomery, recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation, creates music that interweaves classical traditions with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice.
Acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan, described by The New York Times as “one of the most admired pianists of his generation,” will perform Florence Price’s soul-stirring Concerto for Piano in One Movement.
The New Yorker has praised Barnatan’s “uncommon sensitivity,” while Le Figaro celebrated his “impeccable musicality and phrasing.” The Evening Standard characterized him as “a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative.”
Mitchell, who also serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival, has developed a reputation for presenting engaging, in-depth explorations of thoughtfully curated programs.
The performances will conclude with Mozart’s incomparable Symphony No. 41, known as the “Jupiter” symphony, completing a program that promises pure exhilaration in heralding the New Year.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘New Conductor Reimagines Pasadena’s Beloved Holiday Concert While Preserving Cherished Traditions’
Brett Mitchell will lead three performances of the Pasadena Symphony’s annual Holiday Candlelight concert at All Saints Church on Dec. 13 and 14.
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming holiday concerts with the Pasadena Symphony:
In his inaugural year as Music Director of Pasadena Symphony, Brett Mitchell is reshaping one of Southern California’s most anticipated holiday events by blending reverence for tradition with fresh artistic vision.
The Symphony’s annual Holiday Candlelight Concert, scheduled for three performances on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13 and 14, will transform the historic All Saints Church Pasadena into an intimate musical sanctuary.
“Ambience is everything, so being in this space really transports both the audience and all of us onstage to another place and time,” Mitchell said of the cherished venue.
The architectural constraints of All Saints Church have shaped Mitchell’s approach to the performances, leading him to adapt the orchestra size for the sacred space’s unique acoustics.
“Big and bombastic is just not a thing we can do with this size of orchestra in this space, so it forces us to become a bit more intimate, which is actually a really lovely way to bring the audience into us,” Mitchell explained.
The program weaves together traditional favorites like “Hallelujah Chorus” and “Sleigh Ride” with three world premiere arrangements by Matthew Jackfert, demonstrating Mitchell’s balance of innovation and tradition.
“Part of the joy for so many of us is also discovering new arrangements of carols we all know and love, so I’m really excited that we’ll be presenting the world premieres of three new arrangements,” Mitchell said.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Cover Story: ‘New Beginnings: Pasadena Symphony launches 97th season’
PASADENA — Pasadena Weekly has published an extensive interview and profile of Brett Mitchell as he continues in his first season as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
New Pasadena Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell is fully aware that many people are exposed to classical music through cartoons or film. Whether it’s Bugs Bunny’s “Rabbit of Seville” or “What’s Opera Doc?” or “The Emperor’s Theme,” the songs resonate still.
That’s what drew him in as well.
“The first orchestra music I ever heard was the music that was coming through our TV set speakers,” he said. “When we got to see a movie, it was the music coming out of the speaker. It really was a gateway to classical music.”
“When I grew up in 1979, I grew up with ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Superman.’ I got my undergrad in composition because I wanted to write film music. I moved to conducting because I have the utmost respect for musicians. They were a formative part of my childhood. The opportunity to make music with them is truly a genuine treat.”
Mitchell continues his debut season with a program comprising four works with distinctive and colorful themes that play off Southern California’s adjacency to the Pacific Ocean and the tech industry.
The “Rhapsody in Blue” performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16. Mitchell opens the program with Mason Bates’ computer motherboard-inspired “Sea-Blue Circuitry,” an all-acoustic work.
“The grooves of ‘Sea-Blue Circuitry’ hiccup from measure to measure as rapidly as data quietly flashing on the silicon innards of a computer, yet the piece is entirely unplugged. It explores ways of recreating the precision of electronica through the instruments alone.”
For the next piece, featured guest pianist Stewart Goodyear joins Mitchell and the orchestra to interpret George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue,” as part of the 2024 global celebration of the work’s centenary.
Mitchell is thrilled in his position. He said he feels it was made for him — but he doesn’t take it for granted.
“Any job is great,” he said. “We’re all happy to have any job in 2024. In addition to having the utmost respect for the orchestra, we hit it off right away. We had great chemistry. I equate it to dating: it takes the right guy and the right girl. The lack of chemistry is not indicative of the orchestra.”
He also has served as artistic director and conductor of Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival since August 2022.
From 2017 to 2021, Mitchell served as music director of the Colorado Symphony in Denver; he previously served as music director designate during the 2016-17 season.
During his five-season tenure, he is credited with deepening the orchestra’s engagement with its audience via in-depth demonstrations from both the podium and the piano.
He also expanded the orchestra’s commitment to contemporary American repertoire — with a particular focus on the music of Mason Bates, Missy Mazzoli, and Kevin Puts — through world premieres, recording projects, and commissions.
In addition, Mitchell spearheaded collaborations with local partners as Colorado Ballet, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and El Sistema Colorado.
From 2013 to 2017, Mitchell served on the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra. He joined the orchestra as assistant conductor in 2013, and was promoted to associate conductor in 2015, becoming the first person to hold that title in over three decades and only the fifth in the orchestra’s 100-year history. In these roles, he led the orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, and on tour.
From 2007 to 2011, Mitchell led over 100 performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He also held Assistant Conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur from 2006 to 2009, and the Castleton Festival, where he worked under Lorin Maazel in 2009 and 2010.
In 2015, Mitchell completed a highly successful five-year appointment as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, where an increased focus on locally relevant programming and community collaborations resulted in record attendance throughout his tenure.
In addition to his work with professional orchestras, Mitchell is also well known for his affinity for working with and mentoring young musicians aspiring to be professional orchestral players.
His tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2017 was highly praised and included a four-city tour of China in June 2015, marking the orchestra’s second international tour and its first to Asia. Mitchell is regularly invited to work with the talented young musicians at this country’s high-level training programs, such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, the National Repertory Orchestra, Texas Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has also served on the faculties of the schools of music at Northern Illinois University (2005-07), the University of Houston (2012-13) and the University of Denver (2019). During the 2022-23 academic year, Mitchell will again serve as adjunct professor of music at the University of Denver, acting as interim director of orchestras and professor of conducting.
Born in Seattle in 1979, Mitchell earned degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014. He also studied with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institut and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship in 2008. Mitchell was also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship from 2007 to 2010.
To read the complete story, please click here, or read the full digital edition here.
Review: ‘Brett Mitchell makes his mark: a fresh take on Mahler at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium’
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Seen and Heard International has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
The Pasadena Symphony’s new music director, Brett Mitchell, used an edition of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 that, while controversial, brought with it a breath of fresh air. Ambassador Auditorium, with its splendid acoustics and embraceable seating, affirmed its standing as perhaps the best orchestral hall in town.
The program began with Peter Boyer’s New Beginnings, featuring brass fanfares and driving rhythms with a lyrical middle section that suggested Copland’s American-style melodies. It is richly orchestrated and makes the instruments shine. No wonder it has been performed more than 25 times. In fact, this was Mitchell’s third performance of the piece, following earlier appearances with the Houston Symphony and Colorado Symphony, and the playing had the audience on the edge of their seats.
The soloist was violinist Akiko Suwanai, who won the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. She swept through Korngold’s Concerto as so many do – it is meant to be swept through – balancing Hollywood glamour with refined elegance. Her silvery tone in the rhapsodic slow movement and graceful handling of the finale’s pyrotechnics brought out the work’s lyrical soul rather than just its surface, Tinseltown brilliance.
The tone for Mahler’s First Symphony was set by the precision of the gurgling clarinets, the charming and natural ebb and flow of the dialogue between the offstage horns and the trumpets, and the lovely understated cello portamenti. It was light-hearted, like a Haydn symphony. The Ländler swing in the second movement was just right and resisted the temptation to make parts of the Trio into a clog dance. The oboe and flute solos in the Trio and throughout were exquisite, lovely in tone and alive with nuance and color.
The controversy is whether the famous funeral march opening of the third movement should be played as a striking, surreal solo by a single double bass (as is traditional), or more smoothly by the entire bass section in unison. While historical evidence from Mahler’s time definitively favors the solo bass interpretation, the 1992 Critical Edition argued for the full section based on score analysis. And that is the interpretation Mitchell played.
The result was more like Schubert than Kurt Weill, perfectly aligned with Mitchell’s more human-scaled, less titanic overall concept. The interpretation revealed layers of chamber music-like intimacy, with wonderful woodwind solos floating above crystalline textures, and trumpet work that managed to be both brilliant and beautifully integrated. The strings, rather than overwhelming with sheer power, created a mesmerizing transparency; the first violins, in particular, brought an otherworldly radiance to the great themes. The final movement built with inexorable momentum to a conclusion that was both musically thrilling and emotionally cathartic. For Mitchell, it was a remarkably assured debut that suggests exciting times ahead for the Pasadena Symphony.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Review: ‘Mitchell Had the Pasadena Symphony Playing at Their Finest’
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Culture Spot LA has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
At 2 and 8 p.m. at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the Pasadena Symphony gave its inaugural concert of the 2024/25 season under the direction of its new music director, Brett Mitchell. The program featured New Beginnings by Altadena composer Peter Boyer, the Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 by Eric Wolfgang Korngold with violinist Akiko Suwanai, and the Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“Titan”) by Gustav Mahler. The Pasadena Symphony…showed why they are one of the top regional orchestras in the Southland.
The first piece on the program, New Beginnings, by local composer Peter Boyer was, as Music Director Mitchell stated in his comments, extremely apropos. Not only was this the inaugural concert by the PSO in their 2024/25 season, but it was the first being led by newly appointed Music Director Mitchell. So, it was new beginnings all around. New Beginnings is an uplifting single-movement work with hints of John Williams that utilizes a large orchestra and makes the most of the brass sections. It contains rhythmic sequences that are hard not to tap your foot to, and it was the perfect work to introduce the new season and the new conductor.
And, speaking of film scores, the first half of the concert concluded with the equally uplifting and melodic violin concerto by Korngold. Korngold, who was a child prodigy in his native Vienna, Austria, eventually came to Los Angeles where he composed film scores in addition to classical music. The Violin Concerto contains melodies from four of his film scores woven together in a beautiful and thrilling late romantic work for violin and orchestra. Suwanai more than handled the difficult solo part. Her playing was understated but both technically and tonally top-notch. Mitchell did a fine job of accompanying her while never letting the orchestra overwhelm.
The concert concluded with Mahler’s First Symphony, which is subtitled “The Titan.” However, many of Mahler’s subsequent symphonies were actually more titan if by that we mean large-scale and lengthy. This symphony really shows off all the sections of the orchestra, but especially the horn section. The PSO horns were more than up to the task and really knocked the ball out of the park. Mitchell showed why he was selected as the PSO’s new music director. He very capably served up an exciting rendition of the Mahler First and had the orchestra playing at their finest.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Review: A Mahler of ‘Unfailing Mastery’ in Pasadena
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Classical Voice has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
At 2pm Saturday, October 26, the Pasadena Symphony opened its 97th season at the Ambassador Auditorium… The opening concert, conducted by Brett Mitchell, the orchestra’s new music director, was a strong one: Mahler’s ‘titanic’ Symphony No. 1 and two works paying tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The first work, New Beginnings, by Pasadena-area composer/Hollywood orchestrator Peter Boyer, features a brass fanfare and folksy tunefulness (but no direct quoting of folksong) not unlike many works of Aaron Copland (his second symphony, for example). The musicians, many of whom also work in Hollywood recording studios, played with brilliance and great enthusiasm.
[Erich] Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto followed. The music contains echoes of many of Korngold’s Golden Age Hollywood film scores (Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Robin Hood) but without directly quoting them. Under maestro Mitchell’s baton, the seafaring first-movement, the chivalric romance in the second, and the swashbuckling finale all came across brilliantly in lush, orchestral Technicolor…
With unfailing mastery, Mitchell conducted Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”) and took us into a bright, lyrical Wunderhorn world. The music flowed through him with all its emotion, excitement, precision and attention to passing details and the larger form. The orchestral playing was superb, notably in the expressive string portamento that is an essential part of Mahler’s music.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Charts New Course With Hollywood-Classical Fusion’
At left, newly named Pasadena Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell [photo by Tim Sullens]. At right, Aimée Kreston, Pasadena Symphony Concertmaster [photo courtesy of Pasadena Symphony]
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming tenure as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Music Director Brett Mitchell brings Symphony’s film scoring heritage to forefront through innovative programming
The Pasadena Symphony is embarking on an innovative new programming direction that celebrates its unique connection to Hollywood film scoring, as exemplified by their upcoming performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto this weekend.
The strategic shift, under newly appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, aims to highlight the orchestra’s distinctive makeup of musicians who regularly perform soundtracks for major motion pictures and animated films.
“The Pasadena Symphony is almost entirely made up of people who play the music for the movies that you all listen to,” explains Concertmaster Aimée Kreston, who has served with the orchestra since 2000. “We are the ones who actually are playing the soundtracks in all the great movies.”
This dual identity sets the Pasadena Symphony apart from other major orchestras.
“That’s not the case of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony or the New York Philharmonic,” Kreston notes.
The orchestra’s members can be heard in “every Pixar movie, every blockbuster,” contributing to some of Hollywood’s most notable soundtracks.
Mitchell’s programming strategy includes works by composers who bridge the classical and film music worlds. Beyond Korngold, who was himself a film composer, the orchestra will feature pieces by Peter Boyer, another established figure in both realms.
“I think it’s long overdue that we make that clear and that we bring that out, that that’s a core part of our identity,” says Kreston of the orchestra’s Hollywood connections.
The new direction comes following what Kreston describes as “a conductor search for several years, and it’s been going on since the Covid epidemic.”
Beyond its film music identity, the Pasadena Symphony maintains a robust presence in the community through “eleven youth ensembles,” educational programs, and “the beautiful summer Pops series out at the Arboretum.”
As Kreston notes, hundreds of young people participate in their youth orchestras, while the organization continues to bring classical music to Pasadena audiences through both its regular season and summer Pops series.
The orchestra’s evolution under Mitchell’s leadership represents a new chapter for the Pasadena Symphony.
The Pasadena Symphony performs at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at Ambassador Auditorium. Music Director Brett Mitchell conducts violinist Akiko Suwanai in a program featuring Peter Boyer’s “New Beginnings,” Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.”
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Launches 2024-25 Season with Mahler’s Monumental “Titan” Symphony No. 1’
PASADENA — Discover Los Angeles has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming first concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Pasadena Symphony launches its 2024-25 season and a new era under Music Director Brett Mitchell – only the sixth music director to lead the orchestra since it was founded in 1928 – with a program filled with symbolism on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 2 pm and 8 pm, at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium. Mitchell conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” Korgold’s Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Akiko Suwanai, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and New Beginnings by Peter Boyer. The monumental program, deeply rooted in Pasadena, simultaneously looks both forward and back while also reflecting the orchestra members’ strong ties to the film and television recording industry. This marks the acclaimed orchestra’s 97th season.
Mitchell commences his tenure with New Beginnings, a dazzlingly celebratory fanfare by Boyer, a prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated composer based in Altadena who served as Pasadena Symphony’s 2012-13 Composer in Residence and has contributed orchestrations to more than 35 film scores. One of the composer’s earliest orchestral commissions, New Beginnings has been heard from Carnegie Hall to the Kansas prairie and adapted for background music on CBS This Morning. It has been hailed as “a well-crafted piece that mixes blazing fanfare-like material with a sweet secondary tune that could have come from the pen of Aaron Copland” (The Providence Journal).
Also embracing the orchestra’s cinematic connections and musical virtuosity, Suwanai, hailed for her “round, beautiful sound and perfect technique” (Opus Magazine), performs the Violin Concerto by Korngold, a masterful composer who brilliantly straddled both Hollywood and the rigorous Viennese Classical musical tradition from which he emerged. Referred to as a “Hollywood Concerto,” the beloved Violin Concerto integrates themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades. In 2019, Mitchell conducted the work to great critical acclaim with Suwanai and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain.
Mitchell caps his first program as music director of the Pasadena Symphony with Mahler’s landmark Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces. The symphonic poem melds traditional and modernist musical ideas while shifting moods from joy and exuberance to introspection and melancholy. NPR states, “It's hard to resist the pull of a piece that begins like Mahler's First: The strings play a single note spread out over seven octaves."
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Begins Its 2024–25 Season With Its New Music Director, Brett Mitchell’
PASADENA — Colorado Boulevard has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming inaugural concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Mitchell will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Korgold’s Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Akiko Suwanai, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and “New Beginnings” by Peter Boyer. The program, deeply rooted in Pasadena, reflects the orchestra members’ strong ties to the film and television recording industry. This marks the acclaimed orchestra’s 97th season… and the conductor’s first season with them.
Brett Mitchell commences his tenure appropriately with New Beginnings, a celebratory fanfare by Peter Boyer, a prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated composer based in Altadena. New Beginnings has been heard from Carnegie Hall to the Kansas prairie and was adapted for background music on CBS This Morning.
Also embracing the orchestra’s cinematic connections and musical virtuosity, Suwanai, performs the Violin Concerto by Korngold. Referred to as a “Hollywood Concerto,” the beloved Violin Concerto integrates themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades.
Mitchell caps his first program as music director of the Pasadena Symphony with Mahler’s landmark Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces.
Mitchell says, “I’m truly thrilled that the Pasadena Symphony’s season launch and my debut as music director is finally here! What better way to connect with the Pasadena community than by opening my tenure with the brilliant music of a world-renowned composer from right up the road in Altadena?”
This is the first of six distinctive programs this season, each of which will spotlight the critically acclaimed orchestra’s artistry, deep community roots, and unwavering commitment to championing both emerging and established composers. Mitchell has been hailed for his “deftly rendered” performances (The Plain Dealer) and “engaging, in-depth explorations of thoughtfully curated programs” (Cascade A&E). Mitchell’s five-year tenure with the Pasadena Symphony began on April 1, 2024.
Tickets include admission to a pre-concert conversation held one hour prior to the concert. KUSC Classical California’s Brian Lauritzen will interview the Pasadena Symphony’s new Music Director, Brett Mitchell, offering a deep and entertaining dive into the program.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Mahler’s “Titan” Launches New Era for Pasadena Symphony Under Baton of Brett Mitchell’
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming inaugural concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Incoming Music Director Brett Mitchell lays out his vision of orchestral music accessible to all
The Pasadena Symphony will open its 2024-25 season on October 26 at Ambassador Auditorium with a landmark performance of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, marking the debut of new Music Director Brett Mitchell. The ambitious program signals Mitchell’s vision to broaden the orchestra’s appeal while honoring classical traditions.
“My fundamental philosophy of symphonic music is that it really is for everybody,” Mitchell said in a recent interview. “My ultimate idea is that there shouldn’t be any kind of music you couldn’t hear by coming to the Pasadena Symphony.”
The 45-year-old Mitchell was appointed to lead the Pasadena Symphony as it approaches its centennial.
He plans to shape the orchestra’s sound and repertoire through diverse programming that balances classical masterpieces with contemporary works.
The choice of Mahler’s First Symphony, nicknamed “Titan,” for Mitchell’s inaugural concert holds deep personal significance.
“I was 16 years old when I first heard this music,” Mitchell recalled. “It is not too much to say that moment changed my life.”
Mitchell’s journey to classical music was unconventional. Growing up in Seattle during the 1990s, he was immersed in the grunge scene before discovering Beethoven.
In fact, this background informs his current approach to programming: “very diverse, very inclusive” in terms of the composers and styles that are represented.
“If all we’re doing is programming one kind of music, we may only attract one kind of audience,” Mitchell explained. “Whereas if we have music by, let’s say, an African-American woman on a particular program, it becomes much easier for people to feel welcome in the hall.”
Mitchell’s background in composition — he holds an undergraduate degree in the field — influences his support for contemporary composers, especially those from underrepresented communities.
He sees classical music as a continuum, aiming to create “conversations across the centuries” in his programming.
Beyond programming, Mitchell emphasized community engagement as his key priority. He aims to make the orchestra more accessible through educational outreach, particularly to young people.
“It is more incumbent upon nonprofits and arts organizations like ours to step in,” he said, by way of referring to declining arts education funding in schools.
Mitchell brings significant experience in youth education having worked with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. He plans to be involved with the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra and to visit schools, working directly with young musicians.
To attract new audiences, Mitchell plans, in part, to incorporate technology and innovative performance formats.
“We have to do that in the 21st century,” he said. “There are so many options now for entertainment.”
He hinted this could include adding visual elements to some performances.
Mitchell’s long-term vision is for the Pasadena Symphony to become “a nexus for all of the arts in Pasadena,” potentially incorporating dance, visual art, and even popular music into performances. He sees this artistic growth as interconnected with audience engagement and financial stability.
The conductor credits two principal mentors for shaping his approach: Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel, both former music directors of the New York Philharmonic.
“I can’t even imagine my career without the influence of both of those men,” Mitchell said.
The October 26 concerts will take place at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Ambassador Auditorium. In addition to Mahler’s First Symphony, the program will feature New Beginnings by local composer Peter Boyer of Altadena and International Tchaikovsky Competition winner Akiko Suwanai performing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto.
“My goodness, a new era has arrived!” Mitchell said of the upcoming season.
To read the complete preview, please click here.