NEWS
"Colorado Symphony posts first budget surplus in 26 seasons, hires new music director"
The Denver Business Journal has published an article about Brett Mitchell's appointment as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony:
The [Colorado Symphony] is announcing the appointment of a new music director — Brett Mitchell, now associate conductor of the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra. Mitchell will have the title of music director designate for the 2016-2017 concert season, will conduct five concerts this season and will become music director in July 2017.
Mitchell is also planning to make Denver his home, unlike many music directors of the past who lived elsewhere. In an e-mail interview with the Denver Business Journal, Mitchell expressed excitement for the move to Denver.
“There are so many reasons this marriage between the Colorado Symphony and me seems to be such a perfect fit, but the biggest is that our respective visions for the future of orchestras are one and the same," he said.
"Once I read the symphony's mission statement, I knew that I had finally found my ideal match, as we've both spent decades crafting programs that feature that wonderful, compelling blend of music ... from the best of the past to the edge of the future," Mitchell wrote. “Knowing that we're starting on the same page, pursuing the same goals and sharing a common purpose gives us a huge advantage.”
To read the complete article, please click here.
Brett Mitchell named Music Director of the Colorado Symphony
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has been named Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, beginning in the 2017-18 season. Prior to this four-year appointment, he will serve as Music Director Designate during the 2016-17 season. For more information, please see the official press release from the Colorado Symphony and the following media coverage:
The Plain Dealer: "Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor Brett Mitchell scores top post at Colorado Symphony"
The Denver Post: "Colorado Symphony targeting younger audiences with new music director"
Colorado Public Radio: "Colorado Symphony introduces new music director Brett Mitchell"
Cleveland Classical: "Brett Mitchell to take the helm of the Colorado Symphony"
Denver Business Journal: "As season opens, Colorado Symphony's next music director looks ahead"
Colorado Public Radio: "Brett Mitchell on becoming the Colorado Symphony's next Music Director"
Slipped Disc: "Cleveland aide becomes music director"
Denver Business Journal: "Colorado Symphony posts first budget surplus in 26 seasons, hires new music director"
Musical America Worldwide: "Cleveland O Associate Conductor to Colorado" (subscription required)
The Classical Arts: "Cleveland Orchestra's Brett Mitchell named music director for Colorado Symphony"
The Violin Channel: "Colorado Symphony announce new music director"
Pizzicato: "Colorado Symphony announces budget surplus and new music director"
Brett Mitchell to perform in The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence: Cleveland Edition
On Sunday, September 25, Brett Mitchell will perform in The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence. Mr. Mitchell will accompany several selections at the piano as part of the Cleveland edition of this nationwide event. More information from the official press release:
On September 25, artists and activists from coast to coast will band together for The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence with a series of live concerts brought together by social media. Our purpose is to use music to honor and remember the victims of gun violence, and to bring heightened visibility to this serious problem.
In Cleveland, a FREE concert will be held at U.S. Bank Plaza in Playhouse Square. Classically trained musicians will share selections on the themes of peace, remembrance, and non-violence.
For additional information, please see the nationwide homepage or the Cleveland event page.
Brett Mitchell to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in centennial celebration for the Rotary Foundation
On Sunday, October 23, 2016, Rotarians and guests from around the world will come to Cleveland, Ohio, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of The Rotary Foundation on the eve of World Polio Day. The occasion will be marked with a special performance of The Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of associate conductor Brett Mitchell celebrating The Rotary Foundation from its humble beginnings with Founder Arch C. Klumph (a Cleveland native), through its global expansion and commitment to humanitarian works, to its present-day mission of eradicating polio throughout the world.
The program will feature works by Beethoven, Debussy, Chabrier, Liszt, and John Williams. For more information or to purchase tickets for this event, please click here. To visit The Rotary Foundation's Centennial Celebration website, please click here.
Debut with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra during the 2016-17 season, leading a performance at the orchestra's home of Kulas Hall on Wednesday, February 15. Repertoire for this program will be announced in Fall 2016. For additional information, please see the event page and the 2016-17 CIM Concert Guide.
Cleveland Orchestra announces program details for Hough concert
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced the program for the free community concert for the Orchestra's "At Home" in Hough neighborhood residency on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at East Professional Center. The concert, led by Cleveland Orchestra Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell, includes Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, John Williams’s Air and Simple Gifts, Smallwood’s Total Praise, an arrangement of Oh Happy Day, J. Rosamond Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, and Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, which will be narrated by Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon.
The concert will be video streamed live online at www.clevelandorchestra.com and www.ideastream.org, and available for viewing through August 18, 2016. A live radio broadcast of the concert will air on WCLV Classical 104.9, and a delayed television broadcast will air on WVIZ/PBS on Friday, August 12 at 9:00 p.m. The television broadcast will repeat Sunday, August 14 at 3:00 p.m.
“All of us at The Cleveland Orchestra are so excited to spend time with our neighbors in Hough,” said Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell. “Our culminating concert will reflect the history of this extraordinary community, a deeply inspiring American story that we’ll celebrate through great American music. We’ll feature orchestral works by Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, George Gershwin, and Aaron Copland, and I'm particularly pleased that we'll have the opportunity to perform Lift Every Voice and Sing, Total Praise, and Oh Happy Day with our friends in the Hough Community Chorus.”
To read the complete news release, please click here.
Schedule announced for upcoming Cleveland Orchestra residency
Associate conductor Brett Mitchell, seen here conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, will preside over the centerpiece of the upcoming Hough Neighborhood Residency, a free community concert Thursday, Aug. 11. (Roger Mastroianni)
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced details about its upcoming neighborhood residency, including the culminating concert led by associate conductor Brett Mitchell:
This summer, The Cleveland Orchestra will join with the Cleveland Museum of Art to celebrate music and art in Hough, a historic neighborhood east of downtown Cleveland. This new partnership between two of Ohio’s premier cultural organizations is designed to create partnerships with communities to develop new and meaningful ways to enliven our community with arts and music.
A highlight of the activities in Hough is a free public concert by The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor Brett Mitchell, at East Professional Center on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. A live radio broadcast of the concert will air on WCLV Classical 104.9 ideastream®, and a delayed television broadcast will air on WVIZ/PBS on Friday, August 12 at 9:00 p.m. and will repeat Sunday, August 14 at 3:00 p.m.
To read the complete news release, please click here. To read a preview in The Plain Dealer about this residency, please click here. To read Cleveland Scene's preview, please click here.
Debut with the Texas Music Festival
Brett Mitchell will return to Houston in June 2017 to make his debut with the Texas Music Festival Orchestra, leading Esa-Pekka Salonen's L.A. Variations, Elgar's Enigma Variations, and a concerto to be determined at a future date. Mr. Mitchell will conduct two performances of this program: the first at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on Friday, June 23, and the second at the Moores Opera House in Houston on Saturday, June 24.
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces 2016-17 season
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announced its 2016-17 season Wednesday. Included in the plans are several contemporary works and first performances of symphonies by Bruckner and Prokofiev. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell have announced their 2016-17 season, comprising five concerts in and around the Orchestra's home of Severance Hall.
The Orchestra’s 2016-17 Severance Hall season begins on Friday, November 18, 2016, at 8 p.m. with a program featuring Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 and the world premiere of Roger Briggs’s Fountain of Youth, which was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. A special preview performance will take place on Monday, November 14, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in Broadview Heights, Ohio.
The Orchestra will perform a special concert for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Open House at Severance Hall on Monday, January 16, 2017, at 4:15 p.m. In addition to excerpts of works from their first two subscription concerts of the season, the Orchestra will perform John Williams's Air and Simple Gifts and the second movement of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto with COYO cellist James Hettinga.
The Orchestra’s second Severance Hall subscription concert of the season takes place on Sunday, February 19, 2017, at 7 p.m. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Youth Orchestra in a performance of Poulenc’s Gloria, and the Ladies of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus take part in Debussy’s Nocturnes. The program opens with Mason Bates’s Sea-Blue Circuitry.
The Orchestra’s third and final subscription concert of its 2016-17 Severance Hall season will be on Friday, May 12, 2017, at 8 p.m. The program includes Joan Tower’s Made in America and a work (to be announced in January 2017) spotlighting the winner of the 2017 Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Completing the program is Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.
To read an article previewing this season in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), please click here. To read the official news release from The Cleveland Orchestra, please click here.
# # #
2016-17 SEASON OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
(All performances take place at Severance Hall unless otherwise noted.)
Monday, November 14, 2016 at 7 p.m. (Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School)
Friday, November 18, 2016 at 8 p.m.
BRIGGS - Fountain of Youth [WORLD PREMIERE, commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra]
BRUCKNER - Symphony No. 4 ("Romantic")
Monday, January 16, 2017 at 4:15 p.m.
BRUCKNER - Scherzo from Symphony No. 4 ("Romantic")
DEBUSSY - "Fêtes" from Nocturnes
ELGAR - II. Lento - Allegro molto from Cello Concerto (James Hettinga, cello)
WILLIAMS - Air and Simple Gifts
BATES - Sea-Blue Circuitry
Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 7 p.m.
BATES - Sea-Blue Circuitry
DEBUSSY - Nocturnes (with the Ladies of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)
POULENC - Gloria (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)
Friday, May 12, 2017 at 8 p.m.
TOWER - Made in America
CONCERTO - TBD (winner of COYO's 2016-17 concerto competition)
PROKOFIEV - Symphony No. 5
Brett Mitchell to lead multiple subscription weeks with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2016-17 season
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2016-17 season, during which Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell will lead multiple subscription weeks.
From March 2 to 4, 2017, Mr. Mitchell will lead an all-American program featuring the first Severance Hall performances of the Symphonic Suite from Leonard Bernstein's On the Waterfront, the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of Augusta Read Thomas's Violin Concerto No. 3 ("Juggler in Paradise") with concertmaster William Preucil, and Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3.
Mr. Mitchell will also lead the Orchestra's season finale from June 1 to 4, 2017, when he will conduct four performances of Leonard Bernstein's score for West Side Story alongside the film, in honor of the composer's upcoming centennial.
For complete details about The Cleveland Orchestra's 2016-17 season, please see this official news release and this article in The Plain Dealer.
Debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra later this season, leading works of Strauss and Prokofiev on Sunday, April 24, 2016. To learn more or purchase tickets, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to lead three performances at 2016 Blossom Music Festival
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2016 Blossom Music Festival season, during which Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell will conduct three performances. Mr. Mitchell will first appear with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra on Saturday, July 30 in a program to be announced. He will then close the 2016 Festival with two performances of John Williams's Oscar-nominated score for 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark on Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4.
To learn more about the 2016 Blossom season, please click here to view the press release from The Cleveland Orchestra, here to read an article in The Plain Dealer, and here to read an article in the Akron Beacon Journal.
Debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra later this season, leading a pair of concerts on the orchestra's ReMix series on March 11 and 12, 2016. On the program are Wojciech Kilar's Orawa, Adam Schoenberg's Finding Rothko, and Bryce Dessner's Lachrimae and St. Carolyn by the Sea. Brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner, founding members of GRAMMY®-nominated indie rock band The National, will be the featured soloists on electric guitars on St. Carolyn by the Sea. To read the press release from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra about these performances, please click here. To purchase tickets, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to lead world-premiere collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Play House
CLEVELAND, OH – Cleveland Play House (CPH) and The Cleveland Orchestra announce details of their latest collaboration, The Good Peaches, a play commissioned by CPH and written by Pulitzer Prize and Roe Green Award-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes. The play will make its world premiere April 14–16 on the Allen Theatre stage. The Good Peaches features three actors and a 55-piece orchestra, and will be directed by CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley and conducted by the Orchestra’s Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell. This presentation marks the third collaboration between CPH and the Orchestra, and will feature music excerpted from Benjamin Britten’s Sea Interludes and John Adams’s Shaker Loops.
Aurora’s task is simple: Deliver a wedding dress to the queen. But when an unexpected storm hits, the young girl finds herself on an adventure beyond her wildest imagination. Music and theater will collide through the bursting swells of a massive storm and in an extraordinary teaming of actors and chamber orchestra. Set amongst the stirring melodies of Benjamin Britten and John Adams, The Good Peaches combines a compelling drama of survival with live music performed by a world-class orchestra.
CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley states, “Only two other major plays for actors and orchestra exist, so we are very proud to be working with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Hudes, and collaborating with the world-class Cleveland Orchestra to add another play to the canon. Cleveland audiences will experience it first but I am certain that orchestras around the country will be lining up to add this beautiful, evocative, girl versus nature musical odyssey to their seasons.”
Brett Mitchell, Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, adds, “All of us at The Cleveland Orchestra are enormously excited to collaborate with Cleveland Play House on this groundbreaking project. Working with the entire CPH team throughout this process has been an absolute dream, and we're delighted that these great orchestral works of John Adams and Benjamin Britten are such an integral part of telling this magnificent new tale, written in such beautiful poetry by Quiara Hudes and brought to life with such spirit by this extraordinary company.”
To learn more, please view these articles in The Plain Dealer and Broadway World.
Broadcast schedule announced for Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2015-16 season
WCLV 104.9 FM has announced that it will present live broadcasts of each of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2015-16 Severance Hall subscription concerts, followed by several rebroadcasts throughout the season. All broadcasts will be streamed live at WCLV.org. Complete broadcast schedule:
CONCERT 1
Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 8 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 4 p.m.
Sunday, August 28, 2015 at 4 p.m.
CONCERT 2
Friday, March 4, 2016 at 8 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 4 p.m.
Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 8 p.m.
CONCERT 3
Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 3 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Sunday, June 26, 2016 at 4 p.m.
Saturday, September 17, 2016 at 8 p.m.
There will also be a special rebroadcast of a performance from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2014-15 season on Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 4 p.m. On the program are Ravel's Une barque sur l'océan, Debussy's La mer, and Fauré's Requiem with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, soprano Marian Vogel, and baritone Nikola Budimir.
Brett Mitchell to lead selections from Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with Washington All-State Symphony Orchestra
YAKIMA, Wash. — Brett Mitchell will lead selections from Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung with the 150-member Washington All-State Symphony Orchestra on February 14, 2016, at the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, Washington.
The performance will begin with "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walküre, followed by "Forest Murmurs" from Siegfried, and will conclude with "Siegfried's Funeral Music" and "Brünnhilde's Immolation" from Götterdämmerung.
For more information and to purchase tickets for this event, please click here.
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces 2015-16 season
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell have announced their 2015-16 season, comprising five concerts in and around the Orchestra's home of Severance Hall.
The Orchestra’s 2015-16 Severance Hall season begins on Sunday, November 22, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. with a program consisting of Kevin Puts’s River’s Rush, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”), and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 (“Rhenish”). A special preview performance will take place on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria, Ohio.
The Orchestra will perform a special concert for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Open House at Severance Hall on Monday, January 18, 2016, at 4:15 p.m. In addition to excerpts of works from their first two subscription concerts of the season, the Orchestra will perform the final movements of African-American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Sinfonietta No. 1 and Lowell Liebermann's Flute Concerto with COYO alumna Rachel Johnstone.
The Orchestra’s second Severance Hall subscription concert of the season takes place on Friday, March 4, 2016, at 8:00 p.m. The program features Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Orchestra in performances of Brahms’s Schicksalslied [Song of Destiny] and Copland’s Canticle of Freedom.
The Orchestra’s third and final subscription concert of its 2015-16 Severance Hall season will be on Sunday, May 8, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. The program includes Richard Danielpour’s Toward the Splendid City and a work (to be announced in January 2016) featuring the winner of the Orchestra's 2015-16 concerto competition. Completing the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
To read an article previewing this season in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), please click here. To read the press release from The Cleveland Orchestra, please click here.
# # #
2015-16 SEASON OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
(All performances take place at Severance Hall unless otherwise noted.)
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. (Stocker Arts Center - Elyria, OH)
Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
PUTS - River's Rush
BERNSTEIN - Symphony No. 1 ("Jeremiah")
SCHUMANN - Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish")
Monday, January 18, 2016 at 4:15 p.m.
SCHUMANN - Finale from Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish")
STRAVINSKY - "The Shrovetide Fair" and "Russian Dance" from Petrushka (1947 version)
LIEBERMANN - Finale from Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (Rachel Johnstone, flute)
PERKINSON - Finale from Sinfonietta No. 1
BERNSTEIN - "Profanation" from Symphony No. 1 ("Jeremiah")
Friday, March 4, 2016 at 8:00 p.m.
STRAVINSKY - Petrushka (1947 version)
BRAHMS - Schicksalslied (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)
COPLAND - Canticle of Freedom (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)
Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
DANIELPOUR - Toward the Splendid City
CONCERTO - TBD (winner of COYO's 2015-16 concerto competition)
RACHMANINOFF - Symphonic Dances
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra completes nine-day, four-city tour of China
Music Director Brett Mitchell (top center) and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on the Great Wall in June 2015 during their four-city tour of China.
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell have returned from a highly successful nine-day, four-city tour of China, the ensemble’s second international tour and their first to Asia.
DATES & VENUES
Sun, Jun 14
Severance Hall - Cleveland, OH
—
Thu, Jun 18
Forbidden City Concert Hall - Beijing, China
Fri, Jun 19
Tianjin Grand Theatre - Tianjin, China
Sun, Jun 21
Shanghai Oriental Art Center - Shanghai, China
Mon, Jun 22
Ningbo Cultural Plaza Grand Theatre - Ningbo, China
REPERTOIRE
SHOSTAKOVICH - Festive Overture
KILAR - Orawa
BARBER - Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
TCHAIKOVSKY - Symphony No. 4
ENCORE
Flower Drum Song from Feng Yang (arr. Huang Ruo)
ANNOUNCEMENTS & PREVIEWS
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's plans for new season include tour of China
–The Plain Dealer (Nov 18, 2014)
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra to Launch China Tour and More This Summer
–Broadway World (May 13, 2015)
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra looks to draw closer on upcoming tour of China
–The Plain Dealer (Jun 9, 2015)
Maestro Minutes (audio): Brett Mitchell previews the repertoire for COYO’s China tour
–Ideastream (Jun 22, 2015)
SEND-OFF CONCERT
Music Director Brett Mitchell leads the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in performance at Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Listen to complete audio of COYO’s send-off performance at Ideastream or via the player below.
Review: An orchestra “many cities would be happy to have as their professional orchestra”
On Sunday, June 14 at Severance Hall, a large and enthusiastic audience was treated to a thrilling send-off concert when music director Brett Mitchell led his talented young musicians in works by Shostakovich, Kilar, Barber, and Tchaikovsky.
The program opened with an exuberant performance of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture. Following the grand brass fanfare, Mitchell set a fast tempo for the wind section’s opening melodic lines, which they played with aplomb. Throughout, the orchestra produced a clear, lush sound…
Mitchell led COYO’s string section in an inspired performance [of Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa] and they sounded splendid…
Samuel Barber gives the wind section ample opportunity to shine in [Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance], and shine they did. Mitchell kept the tempos in check without losing any of the work’s wonderfully hysterical qualities.
Following intermission, Mitchell and his brass section held back nothing as they launched into Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. As this ensemble has proven in the past, it is one that many cities would be happy to have as their professional orchestra. Mitchell again led a technically clean and musically thoughtful performance.
— Cleveland Classical (June 18, 2015)
VIDEOS FROM THE ROAD
INTERVIEW: TIANANMEN SQUARE
INTERVIEW: TOUR WRAP-UP
TOUR FAREWELL SPEECH
‘SOUND OF APPLAUSE’ RECAP
Upon returning home, Brett Mitchell sat down with host Dee Perry on Sound of Applause for a debrief to wrap up the tour. Listen at Ideastream or via the player below.
PHOTOS
Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing
Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing
Tianjin Grand Theatre, Tianjin
Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shangai
Ningbo Cultural Plaza Grand Theatre
Dress rehearsal at Ningbo Cultural Plaza Grand Theatre
Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai
Shanghai program cover
The 2014-15 Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell at home in Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Brett Mitchell to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in scores for ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Home Alone’
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in presentations of two classic film scores at Severance Hall in December 2015. On Wednesday, December 10, Mitchell and the Orchestra will present Back to the Future, for which composer Alan Silvestri has augmented his original score with approximately fifteen minutes of new music. On Tuesday, December 16, Mitchell will take the podium again for a presentation of Home Alone with John Williams's complete original score. To read the official press release from The Cleveland Orchestra, please click here.
Brett Mitchell receives commendations from Cleveland mayor and Confucius Institute
At this afternoon's send-off concert at Severance Hall, Brett Mitchell received commendations from Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson and the Confucius Institute in recognition of his upcoming four-city tour of China with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Mayor Jackson's commendation states in part, "I invite all citizens to join me in thanking Mr. Mitchell for his continuous efforts to promote cultural exchange and for being a positive role model for Cleveland Youth." The Confucius Institute's commendation was presented "in appreciation for your continuous efforts in promoting people-to-people friendship and cultural exchanges."