NEWS
Audio: Brett Mitchell discusses upcoming Cleveland Orchestra performance
Brett Mitchell at the ideastream studios on Wednesday, August 10. (Photo by Angela Mitchell)
Brett Mitchell spoke with Mark Satola on WCLV Classical 104.9 this afternoon about The Cleveland Orchestra's concert tomorrow evening, which marks the culmination of the orchestra's summer-long residency in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland. To hear this interview, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell discusses upcoming Cleveland Orchestra concert celebrating Cleveland Museum of Art's centennial
Associate conductor Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance on Sunday, June 26 celebrating the centennial of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Orchestra's neighbor in University Circle.
Brett Mitchell joined host Bill O'Connell on WCLV Classical 104.9 this afternoon to discuss The Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming performance on Sunday, June 26, which will serve as the finale of the Cleveland Museum of Art's Centennial Festival Weekend. To hear this interview, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell and Jahja Ling discuss 30 years of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Jahja Ling (left), Robert Conrad (middle), and Brett Mitchell (right) spoke at the WCLV studios in Cleveland.
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's current music director Brett Mitchell and founding music director Jahja Ling reminisced with WCLV's Robert Conrad during the broadcast of COYO's 30th season finale on Sunday, May 8. To hear the complete interview, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell previews the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 30th season finale on WCLV
Brett Mitchell joined host Bill O'Connell on WCLV Classical 104.9 this afternoon to discuss the final concert of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 30th season, presented this Sunday, May 8 at Severance Hall. To hear this interview, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Play House presents 'The Good Peaches': Brett Mitchell & Laura Kepley"
Cleveland Play House artistic director Laura Kepley and Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor Brett Mitchell at the WCLV studios.
The Cleveland Orchestra's Brett Mitchell and Cleveland Play House's Laura Kepley recently spoke with WCLV Classical 104.9's Jacqueline Gerber about their upcoming world premiere collaboration, The Good Peaches. To hear this interview, please click here.
To hear it as it appeared on WCPN's The Sound of Applause, please click here.
Audio: "Star Wars: The Score Awakens"
CLEVELAND — Brett Mitchell discusses John Williams's Oscar-nominated score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens with host Bill O'Connell in a new, hourlong special, “Star Wars: The Score Awakens,” set premiere on WCLV Classical 104.9 on Saturday, January 23 at 5 p.m. Eastern.
A synopsis from WCLV:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is already the biggest movie of all time in the United States. The soundtrack is an original score by John Williams, who has written the music for all seven Star Wars movies, plus other classics like Indiana Jones, E.T., Home Alone, and many, many more. Brett Mitchell, Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, is a die-hard fan of John Williams and Star Wars, so WCLV invited him to the KeyBank Studio to take us through the score.
Listen at Ideastream or via the player below.
Update: ‘Star Wars: The Score Awakens’ won Best Documentary at the 2017 All Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Like this special? Check out my two episodes of Classical Classroom exploring the music of Star Wars and The Force Awakens!
Audio: "Awakening John Williams's 'Force' with Brett Mitchell"
Photo by Gregg Barckholtz, edited by Dacia Clay
Brett Mitchell discusses John Williams's Oscar-nominated score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens with host Dacia Clay on the most recent episode of Houston Public Media's Classical Classroom. A synopsis from HPM:
This episode is full of spoilers – not just spoilers about The Force Awakens, but about future Star Wars episodes. Okay – they could be future spoilers. Right now, they’re just our attempts at trying to find the Easter eggs hidden in John Williams’s new score. This may be the nerdiest and most epic episode ofClassical Classroom to date. Brett Mitchell, Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, is your guide through the music of the latest Star Wars episode. He teaches about John Williams as a composer and about important tools of the compositional trade, and reveals how this new music is tied to Williams’s scores for the original films. Mitchell takes no prisoners, and does not care for Ewoks. Prepare for hyperdrive.
To listen to "Awakening John Williams's 'Force' with Brett Mitchell," please click here, or listen below.
Like this episode? Check out my first episode of Classical Classroom: Episode 4: Leitmotif in Star Wars!
Audio: Intermission interview on WCLV
CLEVELAND — Brett Mitchell spoke with host Robert Conrad during the intermission of WCLV's live broadcast of yesterday's Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra concert, the first of their 2015-16 season. To hear this interview, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell previews the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's first concert of the season on WCLV
Brett Mitchell joined host Bill O'Connell on WCLV this afternoon to discuss the first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 30th season, presented this Sunday evening at Severance Hall. To hear this interview, please click here.
Audio: The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center
CLEVELAND — Brett Mitchell joined host Jacqueline Gerber on WCLV this morning to discuss his performances with The Cleveland Orchestra, soloist James Ehnes, and the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra at Blossom Music Center tomorrow evening. To hear this interview, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell recaps COYO's China tour on "The Sound of Applause"
Brett Mitchell was a guest on yesterday's episode of The Sound of Applause on NPR affiliate 90.3 WCPN in Cleveland, discussing the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's recent tour of China with host Dee Perry and correspondent Dan Polletta. To hear this interview, please click here.
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)
Audio: "COYO China Tour: Maestro Minutes with Brett Mitchell"
Brett Mitchell recently sat down at the WCLV studios to discuss the works the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra would be playing on their upcoming four-city tour of China. To hear his remarks on Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Wojciech Kilar's Orawa, Samuel Barber's Medea's Dance of Vengeance, and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, please click here.
Audio: Complete recording of COYO's China tour send-off concert
WCLV has made available on demand the complete send-off concert the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performed the day before embarking on their four-city tour of China. To hear this concert in its entirety, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell explores ‘Leitmotif in Star Wars’ on ‘Classical Classroom’
Photo by Gregg Barckholtz, edited by Dacia Clay
Brett Mitchell joins host Dacia Clay for the fourth episode of Houston Public Media's newest program, Classical Classroom. In this episode, Mitchell discusses John Williams's score for Star Wars, illustrating various leitmotifs at the piano, then putting them in context by playing examples from the original soundtrack recording. To listen to this episode, please click here.
Like this episode? Check out my next episode of Classical Classroom exploring music of The Force Awakens: Episode 115: Awakening John Williams’ “Force” with Brett Mitchell!