Pasadena Symphony announces 2024-25 season, Brett Mitchell’s first as Music Director

Written By Brett Mitchell

PASADENA — The Pasadena Symphony has announced its 2024-25 season, Brett Mitchell’s first as Music Director.

From the official press release:

Pasadena Symphony launches a bold new era with the announcement of its 2024-25 season, the first to be programmed and led by recently appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, who is only the sixth conductor to helm the orchestra since it was founded in 1928. It features six distinctive programs selected by Mitchell to spotlight the critically acclaimed orchestra’s virtuosic artistry, deep community roots, and unwavering commitment to championing emerging and established composers. The programming also reflects the considerable impact many of the orchestra’s gifted musicians have had on the film industry and incorporates some of the musical influences on Mitchell’s own career. Mitchell will conduct all six of the programs during his debut season with the orchestra, which marks Pasadena Symphony’s 97th season.  

“I’m particularly pleased during my first season with Pasadena Symphony to explore a wide variety of repertoire that will showcase the breadth and scope of my brilliant colleagues’ musicianship while also featuring an inclusive roster of soloists and composers,” says Mitchell. “My intention is to showcase great music performed by great musicians.” 

“I will strive to cover as many bases as I possibly can with each season’s programs. That means we’ll present works from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and contemporary eras as well as a broad range of styles within each of those periods. Some works will be familiar while others lesser known.” 

Download the 2024-25 Season Flyer

Pasadena Symphony President & CEO Andrew Brown states, “This is a tremendously exciting time for the Pasadena Symphony as we embark on our next chapter under Brett Mitchell’s artistic leadership. He has crafted a season of incredible music that touches, enthralls, inspires, challenges and intrigues. We can’t wait for audiences to experience all that he brings to the concert hall.” 

During Mitchell’s inaugural season, he conducts from the canon of landmark orchestral works Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces; Mozart’s masterly final symphony, Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter,” completed just three years before the composer’s death; Prokofiev’s impeccably crafted Classical Symphony; and Beethoven’s cheerful Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” expressing the joy of nature. 

Mitchell and the orchestra welcome six distinguished guest artists performing a range of seminal concertos, three of them violinists. Akiko Suwanai, who in 1990, at age 18, became the youngest winner of the violin portion of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, plays Korngold’s Violin Concerto, also known as a “Hollywood Concerto” for integrating 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. Stefan Jackiw, a violinist with “talent that’s off the scale” (The Washington Post), performs the sublime Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, “Turkish,” composed by Mozart when he was still a teenager. Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a lush tour-de-force, features William Hagen, a violinist praised for his “glowing tone (and) virtuosic pyrotechnics” (Chicago Classical Review).  

Two leading pianists also join Pasadena Symphony: Inon Barnatan, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (The New York Times), presenting Florence Price’s Concerto for Piano in One Movement, and Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, interpreting Gershwin’s iconic jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue as part of the work’s 2024 global centenary celebration. Additionally, Mark Kosower, the eminent Principal Cello of the Cleveland Orchestra, takes the stage for a performance of Dvořák’s beloved Cello Concerto.  

Providing further musical texture, Mitchell introduces audiences to a selection of works by composers he calls “near and dear to my heart.” They include former Pasadena Symphony Composer in Residence, prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated Altadena resident Peter Boyer’s dazzling fanfare New Beginnings, which launches the orchestra’s 2024-25 season and aptly signals Mitchell’s first podium appearance as Music Director. Mitchell illuminates Mason Bates’ Sea-Blue Circuitry, mimicking a computer motherboard; and Samuel Jones’ Hymn to the Earth, a suite derived from his larger symphonic work entitled “Roundings: Musings and Meditations on Texas New Deal Murals,” which contemplates Earth’s enduring power; Adolphus Hailstork’s Baroque Suite, filtering his unique compositional voice through a historical musical lens; and 2024 GRAMMY-winning composer Jessie Montgomery’s vivid Starburst. 

Mitchell states, “These contemporary works are all part of the great continuum of classical music. The ‘conversations’ that take place between these newer works and the great masterworks of the past—how one work causes us to hear the next work differently—are part of the great joy of being in the concert hall.” 

Themes of nature also punctuate the programming this season with Mitchell and the orchestra exploring the classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.   

Mitchell explains, “One of the things I’ve always loved about California is the diversity of its nature. There are countless examples of composers writing works inspired by nature, and I’ve selected a handful of favorites to share.” In addition to Beethoven’s sunny “Pastoral” Symphony celebrating the bucolic countryside, and Jones’ homage to our planet, he leads Wagner’s thrilling “Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre, considered the composer’s magnum opus; Debussy’s shimmering La Mer (“The Sea”); and Ravel’s descriptive Une barque sur l’océan (“A boat on the ocean”). 

In December, the Pasadena Symphony continues its tradition of presenting its annually sold-out Holiday Candlelight Concert at All Saints Church, with Mitchell conducting timeless seasonal favorites with special guests, including the LA Bronze Handbell Ensemble, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, the Donald Brinegar Singers and JPL Chorus.

Brett Mitchell https://www.brettmitchellconductor.com
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