Audio: 'Sounds and Reflections from The Cleveland Orchestra's First Rehearsal in 16 Months'

Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center on July 3, 2021, marking the orchestra’s first public performance since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — WKSU 89.7 has published an audio story about The Cleveland Orchestra’s return to live performances, featuring an interview with Brett Mitchell, who led the orchestra’s first live concerts since March 2020 earlier this month.

Classical music has returned to Northeast Ohio after more than a year of silence.

The first time the world-renowned orchestra was back together to rehearse for its July 4 weekend concerts.

Former Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor Brett Mitchell led the program, serving as guest conductor.

At the opening of its first rehearsal, Mitchell addressed the orchestra as it prepared to play “Soul of Remembrance” by Mary D. Watkins.

“Do we want to do nothing but ‘sis boom bah’ right now, or do we want to acknowledge why we have not been together for the last 16 months? So, that’s why we’re going to do this piece,” Mitchell said.

He addressed the orchestra, stating that it would play in commemoration of the 600,000 Americans who died from the coronavirus and the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020.

“The whole piece is called ‘Five Movements in Color,’” he said. “It’s supposed to be a statement about the African-American experience. And this is the second movement.”

He said the piece is bittersweet is and nostalgic. It’s a song of sorrow and hope.

Mitchell said although so much has happened in the last year and the orchestra had not joined together to play music in some time, it was able to pick back up right where it left off for the rehearsal.

“Have they not played together, all of them, for 16 months? Yes, that’s true. And how long did it take before everything locked back in? I don’t know, 90 seconds or something like that,” he said.

Mitchell said seeing the clarinet players sitting together in a row, without social distancing, was a big change.

During the pandemic, he recorded videos of himself playing piano at home and uploaded them to YouTube.

“But that’s not what I wanted to spend my career doing,” Mitchell said. “I want to be with people. I want to make music with people. As a conductor, I really can’t do what I do without other people.”

Mitchell was on the conducting staff of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2013 to 2017, serving as assistant conductor and then associate conductor. In 2017, he became the music director of the Colorado Symphony.

When he was asked to guest conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for the July 4 concerts, he led the group in performing works by American composers, including Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa.

“What I’ve really thought about is not primarily making music. It’s primarily everybody being together again and what that feels like,” he said.

To read the complete story and hear audio from The Cleveland Orchestra’s first rehearsal after the Coronavirus pandemic, please click here.