NEWS
Preview: "Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra launches banner year with a few firsts and a final farewell"
The Saginaw News has published a preview of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra's 2014-15 season, "A Celebration of Excellence," which marks Brett Mitchell's fifth and final season as Music Director. To read this article, please click here.
Additional concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra has engaged Brett Mitchell to lead several additional concerts during their 2014-15 concert season. On March 4, 2015, Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra will perform a free community concert during their annual Miami residency. On March 15, 2015, Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra will perform works of Britten, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Mozart, and Williams on their second family concert of the season at Severance Hall. For more information on both of these concerts, please click here.
Cover story: "Brett Mitchell: A Maestro of Musical Magic Comes Full Circle"
On the eve of his final season as Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, Brett Mitchell sits down with The Review to discuss the coming season and the high points of his five-year partnership with the orchestra.
"The Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra is poised to kick off their 2014-15 concert season upon an apex of creativity and critical acclaim cultivated largely through the insightful and innovative instincts of music director Brett Mitchell. Since the SBSO Board of Directors brought Mitchell on board back in 2010, he has consistently set the performance bar higher with each year of his tenure."
The article describes Mitchell as "beloved by an expansive and divergent array of artistic supporters throughout the region," in part because of the "forward momentum and the impressive legacy he has rendered over five short years." To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Musical Passions"
Brett Mitchell will join host Eric Kisch for the full hour of the September 20 episode of Musical Passions on WCLV Classical 104.9. Among other topics, Mr. Mitchell will discuss his relationship with the late Lorin Maazel, with whom he worked at the Castleton Festival in 2009 and 2010. To stream this broadcast live from anywhere in the world, please visit WCLV.org at 10 a.m. EDT.
Broadcast schedule announced for Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2014-15 season
WCLV 104.9 FM has announced that it will present live broadcasts of each of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2014-15 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 23, 2014 at 8 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Sunday, January 4, 2015 at 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 8 p.m.
CONCERT 2
Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 7 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4 p.m.
Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 8 p.m.
CONCERT 3
Sunday, May 3, 2015 at 8 p.m. (LIVE BROADCAST)
Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 8 p.m.
Review: "Thunderous Ovation for a Last-Minute Substitute"
Seen and Heard International has published a review of Brett Mitchell's last-minute debut at the Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra. The review praised "an alternately atmospheric and vigorous account of the overture to...Der Freischütz" before turning to the second half: "The thing to make the audience roar (and they did) was a first-class performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony... Mitchell had its measure, bringing the score to life as written, catching details that almost every other conductor stomps over, yet doing so with emotion, life, and meaning. This performance was never just abstract notes on a page... The slow movement was achingly intense, leading to a finale as close to perfect as I ever expect to hear in a live concert." To read the complete review, please click here.
Preview: "Brett Mitchell will make official debut at Blossom with Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra"
After Brett Mitchell's last-minute debut at the Blossom Music Festival last weekend with The Cleveland Orchestra, ClevelandClassical.com has published a preview of his upcoming "official" Blossom debut with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra. To read the article, please click here.
Review: "Mitchell in for Skrowaczewski"
"Mitchell did himself proud leading scores by Weber, Mozart and Shostakovich on a night that will no doubt be inscribed in the annals of Assistant Conductors’ Big Opportunities," begins ClevelandClassical.com's review of Brett Mitchell's last-minute debut at the Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra. The site particularly praised the "clean, expressive performance [of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5] which had both its thrilling and chilling moments, as well as an abundance of alluring details. The finale was breathtaking in its sweep and sense of triumph. The results Mitchell and the orchestra achieved on Sunday were amazing." To read the complete review, please click here.
Review: Brett Mitchell's Blossom debut hailed as "propulsive, fiercely focused, and flawlessly paced"
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has hailed Brett Mitchell's last-minute debut at the Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra as "propulsive, fiercely focused...and flawlessly paced." "The reading [of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5] presented the listener with ample servings of madness and sorrow, and allowed time for both to sink in fully." "The conductor himself may have been a late addition to the program Sunday, but his actual work, a controlled, emphatic performance defined by effective use of silence, was hardly that of a newcomer." To read the complete review, please click here.
BREAKING: Brett Mitchell to make Blossom debut tonight as last-minute substitution
Brett Mitchell will step in for an indisposed Stanislaw Skrowaczewsi to conduct this evening's Cleveland Orchestra subscription performance at the Blossom Music Festival. The repertoire includes Weber's Overture from Der Freischütz, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 with soloist Francesco Piemontesi, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. This performance marks Mr. Mitchell’s Blossom Music Festival debut.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra announces next 'Celebrity' series with focus on classic films"
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has posted a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra's live-score-with-film series for 2014-15, on which Brett Mitchell will lead both "Fantasia" (December 11, 2014) and "Vertigo" (February 13, 2015). To read this article, please click here.
Audio: "Remembering Lorin Maazel"
Brett Mitchell joined host Jacqueline Gerber on WCLV this morning in a special tribute to Lorin Maazel, with whom Mitchell studied and worked for several seasons at the Castleton Festival. To hear the complete, 20-minute interview, please click here.
Brett Mitchell on Lorin Maazel in the Plain Dealer
Brett Mitchell released a statement to the Cleveland Plain Dealer upon the passing of Lorin Maazel, with whom Mitchell studied and worked at the Castleton Festival: "Audiences and orchestras know Maestro Maazel's on-podium demeanor as demanding, exacting, and precise, but my personal experiences with him revealed a man of great passion, wit, intelligence, and generosity." To read the complete article, please click here.
Video: Brett Mitchell calls the shots in the broadcast control room
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture has published a behind-the-scenes video of the control room during a live Cleveland Orchestra video broadcast. In this segment (featuring John Williams's March from Superman), Brett Mitchell calls the shots (literally) as Assistant Director. To watch this video, please click here.
2014-15 season announcement: Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
The 2014-15 season marks Brett Mitchell's second as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. In addition to their subscription series at Severance Hall, season highlights include performances at the Ohio Music Education Association's annual conference in February 2015, the opening session of the League of American Orchestras' national conference in May 2015, and a four-city tour of China in June 2015. For more information, please click the "SCHEDULE" page above.
2014-15 concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a dozen performances during the 2014-15 concert season, his second as Assistant Conductor. After leading a series of education concerts in November 2014, Mr. Mitchell will return to the podium for two performances of classic films with live orchestral underscore: Disney's Fantasia in December 2014 and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (music by Bernard Herrmann) in February 2015. For more information, please click the "SCHEDULE" page above.
Brett Mitchell to lead Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on tour of China
Brett Mitchell will lead the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on a tour of China in June 2015, including performances in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, and Beijing. This will be the orchestra's first tour of Asia and their second international tour, following their tour of Europe in 2012. Further details will be announced in Fall 2014.
2014-15 season announcement: Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra
The Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2014-15 season, which marks Brett Mitchell's fifth and final season as music director. In addition to the orchestra's complete classical subscription series, Mr. Mitchell will lead various education, holiday, Pops, and chamber orchestra concerts. His final performance in April 2015 will feature works by the same three composers with which he opened his tenure in September 2010: Kevin Puts ("...this noble company"), Mozart (concert arias with bass-baritone Timothy Jones), and Mahler (Symphony No. 5). For more information, please click the "SCHEDULE" page above.
Video: Brett Mitchell in today's New York Times
Footage of Brett Mitchell's last-minute subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra appears in an article in today's New York Times: "Finding Tomorrow’s Classical Fans." Mr. Mitchell leads the orchestra in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder and J. Strauss II's Csárdás from Ritter Pázmán. To watch this video, please click here.
"Brett Mitchell ('01) earns Young Alumnus of the Year"
Western Washington University has issued a press release announcing Brett Mitchell's selection as the recipient of the university's 2014 Young Alumnus of the Year award. To read this press release, please click here.