NEWS
Brett Mitchell to debut with the Pasadena Symphony in 2020-21
Brett Mitchell will make his subscription debut with the Pasadena Symphony at the Ambassador Auditorium in March 2021 on a program featuring works of Adam Schoenberg, Grieg, and Mozart.
PASADENA — The Pasadena Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will make his subscription debut with the orchestra at the Ambassador Auditorium on Saturday, March 20, 2021. The program will be:
ADAM SCHOENBERG - Finding Rothko
GRIEG - Piano Concerto
Andrew Tyson, piano
MOZART - Symphony No. 40
The program will be presented at both 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
More from Pasadena Now:
The orchestra welcomes a new guest conductor to the podium on March 20th when Colorado Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell makes his Pasadena debut with Mozart Sympony No. 40 and rising-star Andrew Tyson performing the ever-popular Grieg Piano Concerto. Adam Schoenberg’s Finding Rothko deepens the Grammy®-nominated composer’s relationship with the Pasadena Symphony, who presented the Los Angeles premiere of his Orchard in Fog in May 2019.
Debut: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra during the 2020-21 season on a program featuring works of Brahms, Mozart, and Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with Karen Gomyo.
FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will make his subscription debut with the orchestra at Bass Performance Hall on October 30, 31, and November 1, 2020. The program will be:
BRAHMS - Tragic Overture
SHOSTAKOVICH - Violin Concerto No. 1
Karen Gomyo, violin
MOZART - Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
The Dallas Morning News has published an article about the orchestra’s season announcement:
With a music director search ongoing, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2020-21 concert season. Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who has led the orchestra for 20 years, is stepping down at the end of this season with the title of music director laureate.
Guest conductors this season presumably are being scrutinized as potential successors. Unless there’s an announcement in the meantime, that could also be true of next season’s guests.
The highest-visibility names for next season are Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera, and Brett Mitchell, music director of the Colorado Symphony.
To read an additional article from Theater Jones about the orchestra’s 2020-21 season, please click here.
Colorado Public Radio presents 'Holiday Memories with Brett Mitchell'
2-year-old Brett Mitchell with his grandfather, Bill Benson, on Christmas 1981. (Photo by Lori Mitchell)
DENVER — Colorado Public Radio has just announced a two-hour holiday special featuring Brett Mitchell discussing his favorite music and memories of the season with host Monika Vischer. Holiday Memories with Brett Mitchell will air five times on CPR Classical throughout the month of December (all times Mountain):
Monday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 8 at 12 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 10 a.m.
Saturday, Dec. 21 at 9 a.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 25 at 3 p.m.
To hear this program, listen in Denver by tuning to 88.1 FM, or stream it worldwide at cpr.org/classical.
8-year-old Brett Mitchell on Christmas 1987. (Photo by Roy Mitchell)
BREAKING: Brett Mitchell steps in at the Amarillo Symphony
Brett Mitchell will lead the Amarillo Symphony in works of Bach, Mozart, and Schumann at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts on October 18 and 19.
AMARILLO — Brett Mitchell will step in to lead the Amarillo Symphony’s subscription performances on October 18 and 19 at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. The program remains unchanged:
BACH (arr. Stokowski) - Mein Jesu
MOZART - Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459
Jeremy Denk, piano
SCHUMANN - Symphony No. 4
For more information, please click here.
Debut: San Francisco Symphony
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in July 2019 on a program featuring violinist Blake Pouliot.
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the orchestra at their home of Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday, July 18. The program will be:
BERLIOZ - Hungarian March from The Damnation of Faust
MENDELSSOHN - Violin Concerto
Blake Pouliot, violin
BERLIOZ - Symphonie fantastique
For more information, please click here.
Brett Mitchell returns to the San Antonio Symphony
Brett Mitchell will return to the San Antonio Symphony in March 2020 to lead a program of works by Missy Mazzoli, Mozart, Prokofiev, and Ravel at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
SAN ANTONIO — After a highly successful debut in November 2017, the San Antonio Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to its 2019-20 subscription series on March 13 and 14, 2020. The program will be:
MISSY MAZZOLI - Holy Roller
MOZART - Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201
PROKOFIEV - Violin Concerto No. 2
Angelo Xiang Yu, violin
RAVEL - Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé
San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers (John Silantien, director)
For complete information, please click here.
To read more about this season announcement in the Rivard Report, please click here.
Colorado Symphony announces its 2019-20 season, Brett Mitchell's third as Music Director
DENVER — The Colorado Symphony has announced its 2019-20 season, which marks Brett Mitchell's third as Music Director. Over the course of the season, Mr. Mitchell will lead the orchestra in nine subscription weeks and half a dozen other special projects.
Demonstrating his deep commitment to contemporary music, Mr. Mitchell will conduct works by eleven living composers over the course of the Colorado Symphony's 2019-20 season, including Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, Missy Mazzoli’s Holy Roller, Anna Clyne’s Masquerade, and Libby Larsen’s Deep Summer Music. Mr. Mitchell will also lead contemporary works by Kevin Puts, Mason Bates, Christopher Theofanidis, Adam Schoenberg, James Clarke, John Williams, and James Beckel, as well as a number of works by previous generations of American composers, including Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Leonard Bernstein.
Highlights of Mr. Mitchell's third season as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony include Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”).
Mr. Mitchell will collaborate with the following soloists during the Colorado Symphony's 2019-20 season:
Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry sing Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light.
Olga Kern plays Barber’s Piano Concerto.
Lukáš Vondráček plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Angelo Xiang Yu plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
Colorado Symphony concertmaster Yumi Hwang-Williams plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
Colorado Symphony principal clarinetist Jason Shafer plays Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.
The Percussion Collective plays Christopher Theofanidis’s Drum Circles: Concerto for 7 Percussionists and Orchestra.
Mr. Mitchell will lead several other special programs throughout the season, including:
Music and Art: A Symphonic Exploration in collaboration with the Clyfford Still Museum
Big Band Classics in collaboration with the University of Denver’s Lamont Jazz Orchestra
Home Alone (complete film with John Williams's score performed live)
Debut: Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on September 12, 2019.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced that Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the orchestra by leading their 2019 Hollywood Bowl season finale.
On Thursday, September 12, Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra will perform the iconic music of George Gershwin to accompany a screening of the 1951 classic film An American in Paris.
Single tickets go on sale on Sunday, May 5. For more information, please click here.
New holiday recording with The Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in eight selections on their newest holiday album, ‘On Christmas Night.’
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus has released its latest holiday album, On Christmas Night, featuring eight selections performed with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Brett Mitchell. Recorded in 2016 and 2017, Mr. Mitchell’s selections on the album include:
I Saw Three Ships (arr. Matthew Jackfert)
The Holly and the Ivy (arr. Paulus)
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Calkin, arr. Randol Alan Bass)
Fanfare: Joy to the World (Randol Alan Bass)
Christmas Day (Holst)
“Somewhere in My Memory” from Home Alone (featuring Children’s Chorus) (John Williams)
“Christmas Time Is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas (featuring Children’s Chorus) (Lee Mendelson/Guaraldi)
Deck the Halls (arr. Randol Alan Bass)
On Christmas Night is available to donors contributing a new gift of $25 or more to The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus Fund. To order, please call 216-231-7372.
Renée Fleming returns to the Colorado Symphony
DENVER — Soprano Renée Fleming will return to the Colorado Symphony in November 2019 for two performances led by Music Director Brett Mitchell. Ms. Fleming last performed with the orchestra on Mr. Mitchell’s inaugural concert as music director in September 2017.
From the Colorado Symphony’s press release:
Today the Colorado Symphony announces the Colorado premiere of The Brightness of Light by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, featuring internationally renowned soprano Renée Fleming in a special two-night performance conducted by Music Director Brett Mitchell at Boettcher Concert Hall on Friday, November 15, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 1:00 p.m.
The letters of iconic American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, the photographer and curator Alfred Stieglitz, are full of poetry, humor, passion, pain, and longing. Written over the many months and years they lived apart, these letters chronicle their initial flirtations—when Georgia was a young, aspiring artist—to Alfred’s death in 1946. Written in three parts, with orchestral interludes composed by Kevin Puts and accompanied by a film by Wendall Harrington, The Brightness of Light tells the story of a great artist who ultimately turns from a painful marriage to embrace her work and the desert land she loves…
“What a thrill for us to welcome one of the greatest singers of all time back to Boettcher,” said Mitchell. “I first had the pleasure of working together with Renée at a world premiere in Paris back in 2009 and again during my first concert as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in 2017. The Colorado Symphony is delighted to share the stage once more with one of the iconic artists of our time.”
For more information, please click here.
Debut: Mahler 5 at the Strings Music Festival
Brett Mitchell will close the Strings Music Festival's 2018 season with a performance of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony at the Strings Pavilion in Steamboat Springs, CO.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO — Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Strings Music Festival on its 2018 season finale on Saturday, August 4, the organization has announced. Mr. Mitchell will conduct Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony with members of the The Cleveland Orchestra; Pittsburgh, Houston, and National symphonies; Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric, and San Francisco opera orchestras; and the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics.
For more information, please read "Your 2018 Guide To Colorado’s Summer Classical Music Festivals" from Colorado Public Radio Classical.
Brett Mitchell returns to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
INDIANAPOLIS — Brett Mitchell will return to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra to lead several performances at their summer home of Conner Prairie on July 6 and 7, 2018, the organization has announced. The program will be:
COPLAND - Music for Movies
MOZART - Violin Concerto No. 5 ("Turkish")
William Hagen, violin
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 7
For more information, please click here.
'Gods and Monsters: The Musical Journey of Wagner's Ring Cycle'
CLEVELAND — Brett Mitchell has created, written, and presented a new television special about Richard Wagner's music for the Ring Cycle, produced by ideastream in Cleveland. In Gods and Monsters: The Musical Journey of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Mr. Mitchell demonstrates at the piano how Wagner crafted and combined leitmotifs to tell one of the greatest stories of all time. Watch the program above.
Debut with the Minnesota Orchestra
MINNEAPOLIS — Brett Mitchell will make his subscription debut with the Minnesota Orchestra on November 15, 16, and 17, 2018, as part of the orchestra's 2018-19 season, the organization has announced. The program will be:
PUTS - Inspiring Beethoven
SHOSTAKOVICH - Cello Concerto No. 2
Anthony Ross, cello
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 7
For more information, please click here.
Brett Mitchell returns to The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra's 2018-19 season finale in Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — Brett Mitchell will return to Severance Hall to lead The Cleveland Orchestra's 2018-19 subscription season finale, the organization has announced. Mr. Mitchell will lead three performances of George Gershwin's An American in Paris—accompanying the classic 1951 film—on May 30, 31, and June 1, 2019.
Mr. Mitchell served on The Cleveland Orchestra's conducting staff from 2013 to 2017, first as Assistant Conductor (2013-15), then as Associate Conductor (2015-17). These performances mark Mr. Mitchell's second return to the orchestra since his departure to become Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in 2017.
For more information about these performances, please click here.
Colorado Symphony announces its 2018-19 season, Brett Mitchell's second as Music Director
DENVER — The Colorado Symphony has announced its 2018-19 season, which marks Brett Mitchell's second as Music Director. Over the course of the season, Mr. Mitchell will lead the orchestra in ten classical subscription weeks and half a dozen other special projects.
Demonstrating his deep commitment to American music, Mr. Mitchell will conduct works by twenty American composers over the course of the Colorado Symphony's 2018-19 season. After opening the season with a world premiere by the orchestra's principal timpanist, William Hill, Mr. Mitchell will lead works by an additional ten living American composers: John Adams, John Williams, Matthew Jackfert, Randol Alan Bass, Jennifer Higdon, Joseph Schwantner, Mason Bates, Kevin Puts, Missy Mazzoli, and Adam Schoenberg. Mr. Mitchell will also lead nine works by previous generations of American composers: Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Bernard Herrmann, Peter Lieberson, David Diamond, Leonard Bernstein, and Charles Ives.
Additional highlights of Mr. Mitchell's second season as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony include:
Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (Nov. 2-4), in commemoration of the November 11, 1918 Armistice that signaled the end of World War I
Itzhak Perlman plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto (Jan. 10). Also on the program: Jennifer Higdon's Fanfare Ritmico and Ginastera's Variaciones concertantates.
Subscription performances of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World"), Brahms's Symphony No. 4, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Orff's Carmina Burana
Mr. Mitchell will collaborate with the following soloists during the Colorado Symphony's 2018-19 season:
Jeremy Denk plays Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 (Sep. 14-16)
Joyce Yang plays Gershwin's Concerto in F (Sep. 28-30)
Actor Damon Gupton narrates Copland's Lincoln Portrait and Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World (Daybreak of Freedom) (Jan. 18-20)
Mezzo-soprano Kelly O'Connor sings Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs (Feb. 14-17)
Joshua Roman plays Mason Bates's Cello Concerto (Mar. 1-3)
Augustin Hadelich plays the Barber Violin Concerto (Mar. 29-31)
Colorado Symphony principal oboist Peter Cooper plays Kevin Puts's Oboe Concerto (Apr. 12-14)
Conrad Tao plays Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major (May 10-12)
Mr. Mitchell will lead several other special programs throughout the season, including:
An Evening with Leslie Odom, Jr. (Oct. 13)
Home Alone (complete film with John Williams's score performed live, Nov. 23)
A Classical Christmas (Dec. 7-8)
New Year's Eve (Dec. 31)
Amadeus (complete film with Mozart's music performed live, Jan. 25-26)
Video: Bringing Music to Life
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has filmed a promotional video for Bringing Music to Life, a Denver-based not-for-profit that enriches the lives of Colorado children and their communities by collecting, repairing, and distributing donated musical instruments to schools and music programs, providing children who otherwise might not have the opportunity with the benefits that come from learning to play.
Brett Mitchell returns to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
DALLAS — Brett Mitchell will return to guest conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during their 2018-19 season, the orchestra has announced. Mr. Mitchell will lead four performances of the following program on October, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 2018, at Meyerson Symphony Center:
THEOFANIDIS - Rainbow Body
ELGAR - Cockaigne (In London Town)
ORFF - Carmina Burana
Additional information can be found in the following articles:
Dallas Morning News: "Dallas Symphony Orchestra unveils its 2018-19 season. Who will lead when Jaap van Zweden leaves?"
Texas Classical Review: "20 conductors take podium duties in the Dallas Symphony’s 2018-19 season"
Debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
VANCOUVER — Brett Mitchell will make his subscription debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on February 7, 8, and 9, 2019, as part of the orchestra's 100th-anniversary season, the organization has announced. The program will be:
SMETANA - The Moldau
GRIEG - Piano Concerto
Andrew von Oeyen, piano
DVOŘÁK - Symphony No. 8
For more information, please click here.
Debut with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra
INTERLOCHEN, MI — Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Interlochen Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 29, 2018, the organization has announced. The program will be:
BATES - Devil's Radio
DVOŘÁK - Romance for Violin and Orchestra (Jeff Thayer, violin)
BRAHMS - Symphony No. 4
For more information, please click here.