Review: A "winning performance" with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Violin soloist Karen Gomyo performs with guest conductor Brett Mitchell and the Fort Worth Symphony in concert at the Will Rogers Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Fort Worth. (Photo: Smiley N. Pool)

FORT WORTH — The Dallas Morning News has published a review (subscription required) of Brett Mitchell’s debut last night with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra:

Friday night’s concert was led by Brett Mitchell, a Seattle native trained in conducting at the University of Texas at Austin and currently music director of the Colorado Symphony. With 445 tickets sold, audience members were widely spaced in the 2,800-seat auditorium. A maximum of 35 musicians was well spaced onstage, with curtains raised to reveal the brick back wall…

String and percussion players were masked, causing no problems in Bernstein’s Serenade for solo violin, strings, harp and percussion. Strings projected better than I recalled from the Sept. 18 concert…

Gomyo and Mitchell collaborated on a winning performance, alert to the mix of textures, moods and even styles. (Stravinsky is a recurrent influence.) Gomyo dashed off virtuoso skitters, double-stops and high harmonics with panache, supplying unforced ardor elsewhere.

To read the complete review, please click here (subscription required).

Guest conductor Brett Mitchell speaks to the audience before the Fort Worth Symphony concert at the Will Rogers Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Fort Worth. (Photo: Smiley N. Pool)