NEWS
Preview: "Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra's season opener to feature former conductor Samuel Jones"
The Saginaw News has published a preview of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of the 2014-15 season, which marks the beginning of Brett Mitchell's fifth and final year as music director. Renowned composer Samuel Jones will return to Saginaw to attend a performance of his Elegy, a piece Jones himself premiered with the orchestra while serving as its fourth music director from 1962 to 1965. To read this article, please click here.
Fall 2014 newsletter released
The Fall 2014 edition of Brett Mitchell's newsletter has been released. This edition highlights Mr. Mitchell's recent last-minute debut at the Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra, a return engagement with the Detroit Symphony, a debut with the Columbus Symphony, and details about his 2014-15 season with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. To read or subscribe, please click here.
Return engagement with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
After a successful three-concert debut weekend with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in June 2014, Brett Mitchell has been engaged to return to the orchestra for an additional performance later this month. Mr. Mitchell will lead the DSO in works of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bizet, and more at the Chrysler Headquarters and Technology Center on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. For more information, please visit the SCHEDULE page above.
Interview during The Cleveland Orchestra's season-opening nationwide broadcast
Brett Mitchell will be host John Simna's guest for an interview during the intermission of The Cleveland Orchestra's first nationwide broadcast of the season. The orchestra's performance of works of Beethoven and Ravel this Saturday, October 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern will be broadcast live in Cleveland on WCLV 104.9 FM, and can be streamed worldwide at wclv.org.
COYO's 2015 MLK concert announced
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell will perform their annual free concert at Severance Hall on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, taking place this season on Monday, January 19, 2015. This year's repertoire includes works of Debussy, Ravel, Coleridge-Taylor, and Tchaikovsky. For more information, please click the "SCHEDULE" link above.
DEBUSSY - La mer: III. "Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea"
RAVEL - Une barque sur l'océan
TCHAIKOVSKY - Violin Concerto: III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo (Jieming Tang, violin)
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR - African Suite: "Danse nègre"
TCHAIKOVSKY - Symphony No. 4: IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra lightens up with pops, family and holiday programs"
The Plain Dealer has released a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra's 2014-15 Youth Orchestra, family, and pops concert series, all three of which Brett Mitchell helps to lead this season. To read this article and learn more about these performances, please click here.
Debut with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra on April 16, 2015, leading a program of Jennifer Higdon's Peachtree Street, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and the 1919 suite from Stravinsky's The Firebird. For more information, please click here.
Brett Mitchell to play duo recital with Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Stephen Shipps
Brett Mitchell will play a duo recital with violinist Stephen Shipps, his concertmaster at the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. The performance will take place at the Saginaw Club at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 23, and will feature works of Provost, Korngold, Suk, and Williams. For more information, please click the "SCHEDULE" page above.
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.