NEWS
Brett Mitchell Returns to the 2026 Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra at the 2026 Blossom Music Festival. (Photograph by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that, for the third consecutive summer, Brett Mitchell will lead the orchestra in a weekend of performances at the 2026 Blossom Music Festival.
Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra will present John Williams’s Grammy-nominated score for the second film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, while the original film plays live on the big screen twice at Blossom Music Center:
Saturday, July 11 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 12 at 7 p.m.
For tickets and more information, please click here. To read a preview of the entire 2026 Blossom Music Festival, please click here.
Mr. Mitchell has been leading The Cleveland Orchestra for a dozen years since joining the orchestra as Assistant Conductor in the 2013-14 season. Since then, he has led more than 150 performances with the ensemble, including John Williams’s Oscar-nominated score for the first film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, at Blossom in July 2025.
Brett Mitchell Returns to The Cleveland Orchestra in February 2026
Brett Mitchell will lead two performances of Michael Giacchino’s Oscar-winning score for Up with The Cleveland Orchestra in February 2026.
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to Severance Music Center in February 2026 to lead two performances of Michael Giacchino’s Oscar-winning score for Up.
Two performances will be presented:
Friday, February 13 at 7:30 PM
Sunday. February 15 at 3:00 PM
For tickets and more information, 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.
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: ‘Béla Fleck and Cleveland Orchestra wow Blossom Music Center with Rhapsody in Blue’
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — Cleveland.com has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s recent performance with The Cleveland Orchestra, opening the classical series of the 2024 Blossom Music Festival:
Brett Mitchell and Béla Fleck backstage at Severance Music Center
Appearing with the Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday evening July 6, Béla Fleck surprised the Blossom Music Center crowd not so much by the level of his playing — virtuosic as always — but by how well he adapted the solo piano part for the banjo in his transcription of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
His reworkings succeeded so well that the piece seemed not just suitable for the banjo but actually conceived for it.
With a reputation that preceded him — his 18 Grammys acknowledge his mastery of every genre from bluegrass to classical —the audience warmed to Fleck immediately and continued to lavish their attention on his playing, eager to hear what magic might happen next.
Under the direction of Brett Mitchell, the Orchestra too seemed eager, playing at lower volumes than usual to balance the soloist. Wind soloists were excellent, especially Daniel McKelway, whose clarinet released a glorious opening skyward glissando, and Michael Sachs, who offered 1920s-style jazz from his muted trumpet. Strings generated an arrestingly warm sound, particularly in the famous orchestral tutti after the first cadenza — the passage used in commercials by a certain airline….
Mitchell opened the program with Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On The Town, a 1944 musical about a trio of sailors getting to spend a day of shore leave in New York City. Although pit and jazz bands have the edge over classical orchestras when it comes to Broadway jazz, The Clevelanders managed to loosen up in spite of their habits of exactitude.
All three selections were sexy and fun, but the final Episode, Times Square: 1944, fairly teetered on debauchery. Special mention again goes to McKelway, who caroused on both the E-flat and B-flat clarinet. Trombonist [Shachar Israel] and the alto sax [Gabriel Piqué] suggested alarming degrees of impropriety.
Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal, an eight-minute theater piece teeming with statements both mercurial and tender, unlocked the second half. It spotlighted lovely and meticulous solo playing from the woodwinds.
In William Grant Still’s 1931 Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American,” blues both opens and permeates the work, calling to mind George Gershwin but without the heat (the two composers knew each other’s work).
Although jazz had been unleashed in America by 1931, Still’s symphony seems European: rhythms are right-angled, syncopations are aligned with downbeats, and blues sections are more calculated than carefree. But Mitchell summoned a great deal of beauty and nobility from the symphony’s events.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Preview: ‘Conductor Brett Mitchell returns to Blossom Music Center’
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra’s opening classical performance of the 2024 Blossom Music Festival on Saturday, July 6. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND - Cleveland Classical has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming season-opening classical performance with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center:
Photo by Roger Mastroianni
“To say that once again being asked to conduct The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom is an honor would be a gross understatement,” Brett Mitchell said during a telephone interview. “I am not often at a loss for words, but there really aren’t any to describe how much it means to me.”
On Saturday, July 6 at 7:00 pm Mitchell will return to the Blossom podium to lead The Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American,” and Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal. The program also includes George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Béla Fleck’s transcription for banjo and orchestra with Fleck as soloist. Tickets are available online.
Mitchell said he loves Rhapsody in Blue. But when the Orchestra told him that they didn’t want the symphonic version that is often played by orchestras he thought they might be considering the original Paul Whiteman jazz band version. “It turned out that what they wanted was Béla Fleck’s transcription where he plays the piano part on the banjo.”
The conductor said that he’s delighted to have the work on the program and to once again work with Fleck. “It’s wonderful because during my first season with the Colorado Symphony, Béla came and we did his third banjo concerto. So he and I have worked together before — and we hit it off. He’s an amazing musician. It’s funny, because he’s won all these GRAMMYs and the GRAMMYs operate by categorizing folks. Yet Béla has made a name for himself by thinking outside the box — or by not even acknowledging the box, just by loving great music and approaching it in the way that only he can.”
Mitchell also thinks that transcribing a piano work for the banjo rather than a single line instrument such as the clarinet or cello makes a lot of sense. “A cello can play chords here and there, but it is not percussive in the way that the piano is. The attack of a piano note can be quite direct, and no instrument does direct better than a banjo. It’s because of the twang of the banjo — the sound it makes when it’s strummed, or when it’s plucked, or when it’s picked — can cut through just about anything. So I think it’s going to be a total trip and I’m just tickled that the audience is going to get to hear it.”
The conductor noted that William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 is a piece that has been on his wish list for over a decade. “So when the Orchestra asked if I would be interested, both of my hands immediately shot up.”
Mitchell pointed out that while 2024 is the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue it is also the 80th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.
“The show opened in 1944, and I think it’s really interesting to hear what jazz on Broadway sounded like in 1924 with Gershwin, and in 1944 with Bernstein. 20 years doesn’t seem like that long a time, but when you listen to both pieces you’d think they were written 50 years apart. The musical growth during the jazz age and the depression, and once the Second World War started the Swing era really took hold with Glenn Miller and the Dorsey brothers — the change is just extraordinary.”
Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal was written in 1931 and was the composer’s first work for full orchestra. “Barber lived from 1910 -1981, which means he was 21 years old when he wrote it, which is just astonishing — he was still studying at Curtis. He wrote it during the summer in Italy, and when he returned to Curtis, he tried to have the piece read by the school orchestra, but the director at the time was none other than Fritz Reiner who said, thanks, but no thanks.”
The work was premiered two years later by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Smallens. “I think it’s ironic when your university orchestra won’t even read your piece, and two years later it’s on a concert program by the Philadelphia Orchestra.”
Saturday’s concert will also be a homecoming for Mitchell, who served on the conducting staff from 2013 to 2017, first as Assistant Conductor then as Associate Conductor. He was Music Director of the Colorado Symphony from 2017 to 2021. In March Mitchell was named Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony, and the Sunriver Music Festival has extended his contract as Artistic Director & Conductor through the 2028 summer season. Still there is a special place in his heart for Cleveland.
“I conducted The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts last year and I think a third of the way through was my 150th performance with that amazing orchestra — which just blows my mind. And the fact that they’ve asked me to return to Blossom is a thrill, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity.”
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to open The Cleveland Orchestra’s classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival
Brett Mitchell will lead the opening concert of The Cleveland Orchestra’s classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival. (Photograph by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — For the second time in four seasons, The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will lead the opening concert of their classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival.
On Saturday, July 6, Mr. Mitchell will be joined by banjoist Béla Fleck—fresh off his latest Grammy Award wins—to mark the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with his dazzling new transcription of this beloved showpiece. Mr. Mitchell rounds out this all-American evening with orchestral gems by Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, and William Grant Still.
The complete program:
BERNSTEIN - Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
GERSHWIN (trans. Fleck) - Rhapsody in Blue
Béla Fleck, banjo
BARBER - Overture to The School for Scandal
STILL - Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American Symphony)
Mr. Mitchell also led The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening concert of their classical series at the 2021 Blossom Music Festival, which marked the orchestra’s first public performance since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For tickets and more information about Mr. Mitchell’s performance at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival, please click here.
Review: 'Cleveland Orchestra kicks off 2023 holiday series with festive Severance concert'
Brett Mitchell introduces The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2023 Holiday Concerts from his living room in Denver, CO.
CLEVELAND — Cleveland.com has published a review of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2023 Holiday Concerts, led by guest conductor Brett Mitchell:
It’s a safe bet to hold off on the Noëls and Fa-la-la-la-las until The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus launch their Holiday Concerts. This year there are 14 of them, and these events are regarded as the true beginning of the holiday season. Let the celebrations begin!
And so they did on Wednesday evening, December 13, at Severance Music Center, when Brett Mitchell led The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus (joined by the Cleveland State University Chorale and the College of Wooster Chorus) in a classy program of Christmas, Chanukah, and winter-themed music starring the formidable Capathia Jenkins, who brought her personal vocal rizz to the party (thank you, Oxford English Dictionary, for the gift of that new word).
The engaging playlist began with a hearty welcome by conductor/emcee Brett Mitchell, a former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor, and an elaborate version of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” by Mack Wilberg, director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who contributed four arrangements to the program.
Mitchell went on to introduce two orchestral selections “from the classical canon,” an arrangement of the chorale that appears twice in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV 147 by Leopold Stokowski, long-time conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and himself an organist, and the breath-taking Dance of the Tumblers from Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “The Snow Maiden,” tossed off at a daring tempo with astonishing clarity…
Mitchell gave a nod to another December celebration, the Jewish Festival of Lights, summed up in Jeff Tyzik’s ebullient “Chanukah Suite,” which featured the Orchestra’s gleaming brass section.
Brett Mitchell introduces The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2023 Holiday Concerts from the stage at Severance Music Center.
Then it was time to bring the audience into the celebration. Mitchell announced that “Away in a Manger” (arranged by Steven Amundson) would be its audition piece, and if things went well, the assembled multitudes would be invited to join in “Joy To the World.” Things did, and Admundson’s arrangement of Handel’s tune set the mood for the composer’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in Mozart’s orchestration, which brought the audience to its feet…
How do you follow such a class act? With an appearance by Saint Nicholas himself, who ho-ho-ho’d his way down the aisle looking untraditionally svelte, to hold a witty Q&A with Mitchell. His departure led to Leroy Anderson’s obligatory and delightful “Sleigh Ride,” and to the final piece on the printed program, Wilberg’s arrangement of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” prefaced by Mitchell’s concise (and accurate!) comments about the origin of Mendelssohn’s tune.
Not quite finished yet, Mitchell led the performers and audience in Carmen Dragon’s lovely and theatrical arrangement of “Silent Night” and the musical greeting card, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
To read the full review, please click here.
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and Wooster Chorus in Arthur Harris’s arrangement of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ live at Severance Music Center on Dec 14, 2023.
Preview: Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra's 2023 holiday festival
Brett Mitchell will lead more than a dozen performances with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center between December 13 and 23, 2023.
CLEVELAND — Fox 8 News has broadcast an interview with Ross Binnie, Chief Brand Officer of The Cleveland Orchestra, about the ensemble’s upcoming holiday festival, featuring 14 performances led by guest conductor Brett Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell will conduct a dozen performances of the orchestra’s annual Holiday Concerts from December 13 through 23, as well as two performances of John Debney’s score for Elf (2003) while the film is shown live on the big screen above the Severance Music Center stage on December 19 and 20.
Watch the complete interview below, or click here to view it on Fox 8 News’s website.
Brett Mitchell returns to lead The Cleveland Orchestra's 2023 Holiday Concerts
Brett Mitchell will lead his fifth season of Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts in December 2023 at Severance Music Center. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Brett Mitchell welcomes Santa Claus to the Severance Music Center stage on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead their 2023 Holiday Concerts, a series of a dozen performances running from Wednesday, December 13 through Saturday, December 23.
This marks Mr. Mitchell’s fifth season as conductor and host of the Orchestra’s celebrated holiday concerts.
Tickets are on sale now at clevelandorchestra.com/holiday.
Repertoire, guest artists, and additional holiday programs will be announced in Fall 2023.
Previews: ‘West Side Story’ with The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ at Severance Hall in June 2017. Mr. Mitchell returns to Cleveland lead the project again on March 17, 18, and 19. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — In anticipation of Brett Mitchell’s performances of Leonard Bernstein’s score for West Side Story with The Cleveland Orchestra this weekend, several media outlets have published preview articles.
From Axios: Cleveland Orchestra takes on West Side Story
It was good enough for Steven Spielberg, so why not the Cleveland Orchestra?
Driving the news: Guest conductor Brett Mitchell will lead the Cleveland Orchestra through "West Side Story in Concert," this weekend at Severance Hall.
Video from the 1961 Oscar-winning film will play on a screen behind the orchestra.
Zoom out: "West Side Story" has experienced a national resurgence in recent years, starting with a Broadway revival in 2020 and Spielberg's film remake in 2021.
Zoom in: Mitchell, who is an adjunct professor of music at the University of Denver, has led the Cleveland Orchestra in multiple performances of "West Side Story," most recently in 2017 when he was associate director of the orchestra.
What they're saying: Mitchell tells Axios that Leonard Bernstein's music in "West Side Story" is "universal" and "quintessentially American."
"This project premiered in the 1950s. The film premiered in 1961," Mitchell says. "Here we are more than 60 years later still experiencing this piece. It's a total masterpiece."
The big picture: Orchestral performances of mainstream movies have become all the rage.
"It's one of the greatest things that has happened to orchestras in the last century," Mitchell says. "I grew up listening to all these amazing soundtracks, and now I get to bring them to life for thousands of people."
From The News-Herald: Cleveland Orchestra, guest conductor revisiting classic West Side Story movie score
It wasn’t too long ago the notion of The Cleveland Orchestra performing live during a movie screening would have been considered taboo for a world-class symphony.
Those days are long gone, with the renowned orchestra entertaining fans and merging worlds through numerous film experiences, including during its popular Blossom Season.
Next up for The Cleveland Orchestra is a return to the classic “West Side Story,” with guest conductor Brett Mitchell, taking place March 17 through 19 at Severance Music Center.
This is familiar ground for Mitchell, who nearly six years conducted The Cleveland Orchestra through composer Leonard Bernstein’s legendary score.
“The last project that I did with The Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall before I left was ‘West Side Story,’” Mitchell said. “It was hugely meaningful to me and an enormous thrill.
“Back then, the orchestra had started doing movies with live accompaniment — I believe it was the first time the orchestra had ever done one of these movie projects on their classical subscription series. Here we are again. It says a lot about these movie projects and how they have become such an integral part of what we do at orchestras now.”
With Mitchell conducting, The Cleveland Orchestra will perform Bernstein’s electrifying score — “Something’s Coming,” “Tonight,” “America,” “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere” — while the remastered film is shown on a high-definition screen with the original vocals and dialog.
“I’m watching a special version of the film with lines that run across the picture,” Mitchell said. “Those lines are how we kind of synchronize the live music to the picture. Normally when I’m conducting a piece, I’ve got two things going on: the orchestra in front of me and the score.
“I’m always navigating back and forth. With a project like this, you have the orchestra, you have the score and the video monitor. It’s just one more wrench in the works that can throw you for a loop.”
Naturally, the loop for a project like this comes down to synchronization and timing. The latter is where working with a world-class orchestra makes Mitchell’s job easier. It turns out there’s a certain element of flexibility afforded a conductor when working with The Cleveland Orchestra.
“They’re the greatest musicians in the world,” Mitchell said. “Part of what makes them the greatest in the world is that they’re also the best-prepared musicians in the world. If I need to speed the tempo up ever so slightly, they make it so easy to be able to do that.
“If I need to slow it down ever so slightly, they make it incredibly easy to do that, as well. These film projects can be the most stressful things you do as a conductor because of all the demands of synchronization but when you have The Cleveland Orchestra it really takes all of the stress off you. You just get to focus on making this great music.”
When it comes to the upcoming “West Side Story” affair, the irony — and heresy to some — is this time around some Cleveland Orchestra audience members may be just discovering the original 1961 film.
That’s due to Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning 2021 remake that attracted younger viewers.
“I love it — I think it’s great,” Mitchell said. “So if people have come to ‘West Side Story’ through Steven’s remake of it, which I thought was completely brilliant, I’m thrilled.
“It’s a project that is absolutely worth discovering in every single iteration. They’re both fantastic pieces of art in their own right.”
Brett Mitchell to lead 'West Side Story' with The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra in West Side Story at Severance Hall in June 2017. Mr. Mitchell will lead the project again with the orchestra in March 2023.
Brett Mitchell and The Cleveland Orchestra present West Side Story at Severance Hall in June 2017.
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead three performances of Leonard Bernstein’s score for West Side Story—synchronized with the original film—on March 17, 18, and 19, 2023.
Mr. Mitchell first led this project in Cleveland in June 2017 during his final season as the orchestra’s Associate Conductor. Read reviews of those performances on Cleveland.com and Cleveland Classical.
For more information and to purchase tickets for the March 2023 performances, please click here.
Preview: 'Celebrate being Home for the Holidays with The Cleveland Orchestra'
CLEVELAND — Cleveland Classical has published a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra’s upcoming 2022 Holiday Concerts, featuring an extensive interview with guest conductor Brett Mitchell:
“Not only is it nice to be back with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, but it also happens to be family because I’ve worked with them for so long,” said conductor Brett Mitchell, who will be leading The Cleveland Orchestra in their upcoming holiday concerts. “You get the best of both worlds — the best possible artistic outcomes featuring these amazing musicians, but also friends and family.”
Holiday Concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus will run from December 8 through 18 at Severance Music Center. Program highlights include selections from The Nutcracker, pieces featuring the Chorus and soprano Mikaela Bennett, audience sing-alongs… Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.
Each concert will begin with O Come All Ye Faithful. “It starts in almost darkness with just the men in the chorus, and we add everybody slowly but surely,” Mitchell explained. “By the end of the piece, the whole stage and the whole hall are completely lit up. For as many dozens of times I’ve conducted this arrangement, I get goosebumps just talking about it.”
Though the musical aspects of the program alone are magical, Mitchell emphasized that the audience experience and interaction is pivotal. “The simple act of coming to a concert is already kind of embodying that communal spirit, and that’s so special. But then, to have everybody not only with us in the hall but also singing the same carols together — that’s maybe my favorite tradition of all on these programs.”
Mitchell added that it’s not just the audience and the chorus who will be singing. “All you have to do is look up at the orchestra, and you’ll see plenty of musicians singing along with these carols. And you’ll see me singing along too. I’m not just up there mouthing the words — the front stands can tell you that I’m really singing. I do it, not because people need to hear my voice, but for the same reason that everybody else sings along, which is to be a part of this community.
Mitchell elaborated on the importance of making the concerts memorable for every listener. “In many ways, these are the most important performances that we do all year because we’re able to engage people who perhaps otherwise wouldn’t be joining us,” Mitchell explained. “Everybody has their own holiday traditions, and for many people, The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts are a part of that.”
Each year, a certain man in a red suit pays a visit to Severance. One of the communal experiences the audience can take part in is the opportunity to ask Santa a question. Prior to the concert, listeners can write a question on a piece of paper for him to answer. After the intermission, Mitchell will return to the stage with Santa and ask him the questions from the audience.
“Santa always has funny things to say to the kids and the adults,” Mitchell said, chuckling. “I’m able to look out at the audience and see people with tears in their eyes because they are laughing so hard — and I’m talking about 8-year-olds and 78-year-olds. The purpose of these programs is to bring joy to people’s lives at this time of year. Hearing and feeling 2,000 people laugh together is as good as it gets.”
To read the complete article, please click here.
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Brett Mitchell returns to The Cleveland Orchestra to lead 2022 holiday festival
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2022 Holiday Concerts in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Published March 8, 2022 Updated July 16, 2022
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead their 2022 Holiday Concerts, a series of a dozen performances running from Thursday, December 8 through Sunday, December 18. Repertoire and guest artists will be announced in Fall 2022, but tickets are on sale now. For more information, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/holiday.
Mr. Mitchell will also lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus in a live-to-picture performance of John Williams’s score for the 1990 Christmas comedy film, Home Alone, on Wednesday, December 14. To learn more or purchase tickets for Home Alone, please click here.
Preview: Cleveland Orchestra holiday concerts are back
Brett Mitchell discusses The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Holiday Concerts with Spectrum News 1.
CLEVELAND — Spectrum News 1 has published a story about The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Holiday Concerts, including footage from the opening-night performance and an interview with guest conductor Brett Mitchell:
The world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra's Holiday Show is back this season.
'O come, all ye faithful' opens the show, as guest conductor Brett Mitchell leads the musicians and vocalists.
“To be able to have folks come in over the course of a dozen concerts like we’re doing over the next two weeks and to spend some of the holiday season with us, that’s really what this is about," said Mitchell
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, directed by Lisa Wong, is returning with the orchestra for its first in-person performance since 2020.
Mitchell told Spectrum News there is something different for everyone to enjoy.
There will also be guest vocalist, Capathia Jenkins, and guest choruses joining the stage on different days from such as Cleveland State University, the College of Wooster and Cleveland's Youth Chorus Chamber Ensemble.
Mitchel said the music is a reminder of how people from all different backgrounds can come together and celebrate being one.
“We all consequently grow up with this music. and so it takes everybody back to being a kid again and that for me is what the holidays are all about.”
To read the complete article and watch the video package, please click here.
Review: 'Cleveland Orchestra exudes joy on resplendent 2021 Holiday Concerts program'
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a dozen performances of their 2021 Holiday Concerts at Severance Music Center. (Photo by The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND — cleveland.com has published a review of the opening night performance of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Holiday Concerts, led by guest conductor Brett Mitchell:
Look no further than this year’s Holiday Concerts for proof the Cleveland Orchestra is glad to be back playing for live audiences.
Packed like a full stocking with a wide variety of music, the orchestra’s holiday program in 2021 is nothing if not a display of sincere goodwill all the way around.
Brett Mitchell, a former associate conductor here, is back in a role for which he is uncommonly well suited. He’s adept at the classics, to be sure, but he’s also got a special knack for pops and an easy sense of humor that makes him a natural host.
Patrons Thursday night at Severance Music Center also got to hear the first live notes by the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus with the orchestra in 21 months. On its own, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” would have been beautiful, but context made it an even greater treasure.
All patrons, happily, get to hear vocalist Capathia Jenkins. Into an evening otherwise devoted to classical, traditional, and contemporary music, she injects a healthy dose of holiday jazz, expertly conjuring Ella Fitzgerald in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and holding the house perfectly transfixed with “Let it Snow!” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
The Chorus remains in fine form under director Lisa Wong. To this listener, Eric Whitacre’s solemn “Lux Aurumque” (“Light and Gold”) is alone worth the price of admission, with its gentle, haunting dissonance, but a lavish, resonant “Wexford Carol” and stirring first movement from Rutter’s “Gloria” compete as close seconds.
The singers also hold up admirably on a brisk account of Handel’s tricky but always rewarding “Hallelujah” Chorus and in a luminous performance of “Somewhere in my Memory” from John Williams’ brilliant soundtrack to the film “Home Alone.”
The big man himself pays an unannounced visit, stopping by to exchange witty remarks with Mitchell, improvise sly responses to audience questions, and narrate “The Night Before Christmas,” in an obviously rehearsed performance with the orchestra.
That the musicians also have done their due diligence is evident in several purely orchestral numbers. Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” makes its mandatory appearance but a lilting performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers,” a dashing “Christmas Overture” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the little-known “Sleigh Ride” German Dance by Mozart are even more welcome.
Rounding out the night are two (okay, three, with an encore) sing-along moments. All those without hearts of stone are certain to enjoy taking part in the all-too-rare experience of communal singing, in this case of “Away in a Manger,” “Joy to the World,” and “Silent Night.” If the concert as a whole is a well-decorated tree, they’re the last, essential piece, the star at the top.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Previews: Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra
CLEVELAND — Cleveland Classical has published a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra’s upcoming holiday performances, including an interview with guest conductor Brett Mitchell:
“What gets me excited about holiday concerts? Honestly, everything about them,” conductor Brett Mitchell said during a telephone conversation. “Every performance is for the audience, but these concerts really are for them. There’s so much opportunity for banter, and every crowd feels different.”
Mitchell pointed out a favorite quote of his from the late Stephen Sondheim, who said, the audience is the final collaborator. “And that is what we have been missing for the last two years in general, but particularly for this kind of program.”
Beginning on Thursday, December 9 at 7:30 pm, Brett Mitchell returns to Mandel Hall at Severance to lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in a holiday program devoted to music of the season. The concert also features director of choruses Lisa Wong as well as vocalist and Northeast Ohio favorite Capathia Jenkins. Performances continue through December 19. See our Concert Listings page for dates, times, and guest choirs. Tickets are available online.
Mitchell noted that the concerts are also a family affair where everyone in the audience gets dressed in their holiday finest. “It’s a special occasion for them, and to look out and see the kids and the magic in their eyes when ‘you know who’ makes his special entrance is so heartwarming.”
The conductor said that this year’s program is full of musical selections that will appeal to everyone. “The longest piece is only seven minutes — the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ from Nutcracker. So if you’re not into one piece, just wait, because the next one is coming.”
He said that the selections are also intended to evoke the feeling of a homecoming, beginning with the first piece — Oh Come all ye faithful — which by tradition, serves as the opener for the Orchestra’s holiday concerts.
“It starts with just the voices and builds and builds,” Mitchell said. “Then there’s a big key change, and that’s when all the wreaths and bows and all of the other holiday finery lights up. Even though we’ve done it hundreds of times, it always has an emotional effect.”
Asked if he has a favorite piece on the program, Mitchell said that since one of his last projects as associate conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra was leading fully staged performances of The Nutcracker at Playhouse Square, “Waltz of the Flowers” is his sentimental favorite.
“But as a guy who was eleven years old in 1990 when Home Alone came out, getting to do ‘Somewhere in My Memory’ is very special, and it’s one the great holiday songs of all time. And right before that is another piece from Home Alone, ‘Holiday Flight.’ Getting to conduct both of these John Williams songs couldn’t be more exciting. It just takes me back to being an eleven-year-old again every time I hear that music. And if you can’t embrace that during the holidays, I don’t know when you can.”
Read additional brief previews from the Plain Dealer, cleveland.com, WKYC, and ideastream, and watch Mr. Mitchell preview these performances in the video below or on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
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.
Reviews: Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra's return to Blossom
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 — Several additional media outlets have published reviews of Brett Mitchell’s opening weekend performances of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. (See below or click here to read the reviews from Cleveland.com and ClevelandClassical.com.)
Conductor Brett Mitchell, who has a long history with the Cleveland Orchestra as assistant, associate and guest conductor, had started the concert with a rather laid-back version of Leonard Bernstein’s overture to Candide, perhaps spaciously paced to allow the work’s sparkling lines to register in the reverberant acoustic of the Blossom Music Center’s pavilion, made even more resonant by the socially-distanced seating of audience members (though the lawn was packed with what must have been a record crowd for an orchestra concert).
Mary J. Watkins’s ‘Soul of Remembrance’ was another of the three works on the program by African-American composers. It is a solemn balance of spiritual-inspired lyricism over a steadily tolling slow march, and is one of the sections of Watkins’s Five Movements of Color. Mitchell introduced the piece with a moment of silence and dedicated it to the memory of those lost in the pandemic.
The second half of the concert opened with Adolphus Hailstork’s ‘An American Fanfare’, his response to Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. Though not as interesting as some of Hailstork’s larger orchestral works, it was a great showpiece for the Cleveland Orchestra brass, which as a section is the strongest it has ever been.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring suite was given a sure-handed performance under Mitchell’s baton, and even the 1812 Overture and ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ were played passionately in a concert where the musicians were clearly delighted to be on stage, and the listeners were overjoyed to have them there once again.
The official program, conducted by Brett Mitchell, was an eclectic mix drawn from various traditions. It began with a spirited rendition of the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. One might argue that the musical — based on Voltaire’s cynical take on human nature — had nothing to do with July 4th, but that one would not be me because it’s a favorite piece so who cares?
This was followed by works by under-celebrated African American composers. The first was Mary D. Watkins’ meditative “Soul of Remembrance” from Five Movements in Color. Next came Concerto in One Movement by the better-known Florence Price, with a fine and dramatic presentation by pianist Michelle Cann. The last work was Adolphus Hailstork’s “An American Fanfare.” One hopes works by these composers will continue to be heard in coming seasons.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
Review: The Cleveland Orchestra Returns to Blossom
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 — Brett Mitchell led The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening weekend of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival on July 3 and 4, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. The following are excerpts from ClevelandClassical.com’s review of Sunday evening’s concert:
It was March 20, 2020, when The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst gave their last concert as a complete ensemble before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live performances for more than a year. The Orchestra, with guest conductor Brett Mitchell, returned triumphantly to Blossom Music Center on July 3 and 4 to celebrate Independence Day.
Three works by African American composers were the highlights of the concert. All of them should be adopted into the Orchestra’s standard repertoire. Mary D. Watkins’ “Soul of Remembrance” from Five Movements in Color (1993) was especially moving. The mood is both nostalgic and bittersweet, with beautiful melodies and lush, American Romantic harmonies and orchestrations. There is a slow, steady pulse throughout as the musical material develops, with wind descants soaring above the melody, finally reaching a full-orchestra climax before fading back to a single violin note at the conclusion. If the other movements of Watkins’ suite are of this quality, the whole set should be performed. This composer, born in 1939 and still living, deserves attention from a broad audience.
The real “find” on this program was Adolphus Hailstork’s 1985 An American Fanfare for brass and percussion — Hailstork’s response to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, but with more musical substance and variety, and treacherous, jagged leaps across octaves.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring made its almost obligatory appearance, in a pristine, carefully developed performance.
To read the complete review, please click here.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
