Debut with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts in June and July 2015. The programs will feature works of Bernstein, Copland, Wagner, Gershwin, Williams, and Ives. For more information about these performances, please visit our SCHEDULE page.

Brett Mitchell receives contract extension and promotion with The Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced an extension of Brett Mitchell's contract for two years through the 2016-17 season. After serving for two years as Assistant Conductor (2013-15), Mr. Mitchell's title will be elevated to Associate Conductor at the start of the 2015-16 season. He will become the first person to hold that title with the Orchestra in over three decades, and only the fifth in its 98-season history. A concurrent agreement extends Mr. Mitchell’s work as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra through the same period. To learn more, please visit the following links:

• Official press release from The Cleveland Orchestra: "The Cleveland Orchestra extends Brett Mitchell's contract as conductor through 2016-17 season"
• Article in The Plain Dealer: "Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor Brett Mitchell lands contract extension and promotion"
• Article in Crain's Cleveland Business: "Cleveland Orchestra gives conductor a two-year contract extension"
• Article in Broadway World: "Brett Mitchell extends contract with Cleveland Orchestra through 2016-17 season"

Banner season for Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra reaches local, national, and international audiences

Following the conclusion of a successful 2014-15 Severance Hall season on May 3, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) will make a nine-day, four-concert tour to China June 15-24, 2015. These performances mark the Youth Orchestra’s second international tour in its 29-year history. The tour includes performances in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Ningbo, featuring Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Kilar’s Orawa, Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. On June 14, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. at Severance Hall, COYO will present a free China tour send-off concert. WCLV 104.9 FM will broadcast the send-off performance live; it can also be streamed online at WCLV.org.

On the occasion of the League of American Orchestras’ 2015 Conference, held in Cleveland May 27-29, COYO alumna and world-renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein makes a special appearance with COYO as part of the conference’s Opening Session concert on May 27 at Public Auditorium. The program features Weilerstein performing Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” from The Carnival of the Animals, and she joins the Youth Orchestra for a performance of the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Weilerstein was a member of COYO from 1992 to 1994.

To learn more about these performances, please visit the following links:

• Official press release from The Cleveland Orchestra: "Banner season for Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra reaches local, national, and international audiences"
• Article in Broadway World: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra to Launch China Tour and More This Summer"

Alisa Weilerstein to perform with Brett Mitchell and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra

The League of American Orchestras has announced that internationally renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein will join the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell for a special performance at the opening session of their annual conference later this month in Cleveland.

An alumna of COYO, Ms. Weilerstein will open the event with a performance of The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns, accompanied by Mr. Mitchell and the orchestra. She will then return to COYO's cello section for the first time in over twenty years for a performance of the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, one of four works the orchestra will play on their four-city tour of China in June 2015.

This performance is free to all conference attendees, and will take place on Wednesday, May 27 at 1:30 p.m. in the Music Hall at the Cleveland Public Auditorium. For more information, please click here.

Review: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra does its namesake proud on season finale"

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a review of the final concert of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2014-15 season, its second under the leadership of music director Brett Mitchell:

So polished, so mature were the performances Sunday night at Severance Hall by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, even their namesake's most discriminating audience would have fallen under their sway. Hand it to Brett Mitchell, the group's director. Even as he rightly praised parents and teachers for bringing up musical teenagers, the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra also could have taken credit himself for turning a band of skilled individuals into a disciplined, cohesive ensemble.

Barber's Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance...enabled the ensemble to demonstrate the full range of its abilities. The Meditation revealed its dark, mysterious side while the Dance, a frenetic romp, proved just how unified and purposeful 100 players can sound.

Again and again, the orchestra under Mitchell captured the essence of a work known to daunt professionals [Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra]. Every technical challenge Bartók threw at them, the musicians hurdled like Olympians. As the music screamed and sang, laughed and roared, so did the orchestra, with all possible vigor and precision.

Too bad Sunday was COYO's season finale. At this point, the group could do just about anything.

 To read the complete review, please click here.

Audio: COYO interview (May 2015 concert)

Brett Mitchell joined host Jacqueline Gerber on WCLV this morning to discuss the final concert of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2014-15 season, featuring Barber's Medea's Dance of Vengeance, Kabalevsky's Cello Concerto No. 1 with soloist Henry Shapard, and the orchestra's first-ever performance of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. To hear this interview, please click here.

Preview: "Music from 'Psycho' part of Saginaw Bay Chamber Orchestra's 'Russian Tales' concert"

The Saginaw News has published a preview of the Saginaw Bay Chamber Orchestra's upcoming season finale, which mark Brett Mitchell's final concerts as music director of the ensemble's parent organization, the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. The performances—taking place on Sunday, April 19 at the State Theatre in Bay City (3 p.m.) and the Bronner Performing Arts Center in Frankenmuth (7:30 p.m.)—will feature a suite from Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho, Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. To read this article, please click here.

Video: "Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor releases blooper reel from tenure with Saginaw Bay Symphony"

"Nothing you say on-camera ever truly disappears. Especially not if it's funny, and you're a conductor," writes the Cleveland Plain Dealer about a newly released blooper reel from Brett Mitchell's five-season tenure as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. To read the complete story, please click here. Norman Lebrecht has also picked up the story on Slipped Disc: "A conductor releases his worst TV moments." To view the original video on YouTube, please click here.

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's China tour send-off performance to be broadcast live

WCLV 104.9 FM has announced that it will broadcast the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's send-off performance before upcoming their four-city tour of China in June 2015. This concert will be broadcast live from Severance Hall on Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m. EDT, and may be streamed live at WCLV.org.

Preview: Debut with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra

Broadway World has published a preview of Brett Mitchell's upcoming debut with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, which will feature works of Jennifer Higdon, Schubert, and Stravinsky on Thursday, April 16. To read this article, please click here.

Video: "Farewell, Maestro"

Brett Mitchell spoke with Sarah Jaeger on this morning's "Better Mid-Michigan" about this weekend's Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra concert, "A Grand Farewell," which marks Mr. Mitchell's final performance as music director after five seasons at the helm of the orchestra. To watch, please click here.

Preview: Brett Mitchell returns to podium for Cleveland Orchestra's 2015-16 Miami residency

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced details for the 10th-anniversary season of their annual residency in Miami in 2015-16, including several education concerts led by Brett Mitchell in November 2015. For more details, please read this preview in the Plain Dealer (Cleveland).

Review: The Cleveland Orchestra performs Stravinsky, Wagner, and more

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a review of Brett Mitchell's performance with The Cleveland Orchestra at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on Wednesday, March 4:

The orchestra and the music were of course the main attractions. Still, the effort wouldn't have been half as successful had it not been for assistant conductor Brett Mitchell, whose vivid musical leadership and friendly, unassuming words from the podium resonated with the crowd... A dashing performance of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture kicked off the night, seizing the crowd's attention with feats of speed and precision... Stravinsky's Suite from The Firebird, meanwhile, was a case of collective virtuosity. Under Mitchell, the orchestra's strings positively glimmered in slower passages, even as they also tore through such scenes as the Infernal Dance with indomitable zeal... That the crowd appreciated the visit was obvious from the many curtain calls it gave the orchestra and Mitchell.

To read the complete review, please click here.

Cover Story: "Bidding Farewell to a Maestro of Musical Magic"

On the eve of his final concert as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, The Review has published a profile of Brett Mitchell, and revisited some of the highlights from his five-year partnership with the orchestra.

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...by carving a proud legacy of superb musicianship, innovative programming, and compelling educational experiences that enrich the cultural climate for residents of the region. In the five short and sweet years that he was at the helm, Mitchell managed to shatter 75-year-old attendance records, achieving the SBSO’s first two sellouts under his direction, which has always been marked by a keen ear for combining and contrasting challenging signature works with the best new compositions being created by contemporary composers.

When asked what he is proudest of accomplishing during his tenure, Mitchell references the manner in which the orchestra has boldly stepped into the 21st century: "The thing I'm proudest of is what a forward-looking organization we've become over the past five seasons. The amount of young people we've brought into the Temple Theatre—people in their twenties and thirties who maybe have never had exposure to live classical orchestral music—is a source of great pride for me."

To read the complete story, please click here.

Preview: "Brett Mitchell prepares for his grand finale with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra"

The Saginaw News has published an article chronicling Brett Mitchell's five-season tenure as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, which comes to a close with their final performance together on Saturday, March 14. To read this article—complete with testimonials from staff, musicians, and community members—please click here.

Review: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra & Chorus: Ravel, Debussy & Fauré at Severance Hall"

ClevelandClassical.com has published a review of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's most recent subscription performance under the baton of music director Brett Mitchell. "As many conductors and orchestras have learned through experience, capturing the essence and style of French music is not easy unless you’ve been blessed with Gallic genes. On Sunday evening at Severance Hall, Brett Mitchell and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus won honorary membership in Le Panthéon with convincing performances of challenging scores by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré." To read the complete review, please click here.

Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra to play Bernard Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo on February 13"

ClevelandClassical.com has published a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming performance of Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo this Friday evening, led by assistant conductor Brett Mitchell. "By now, Mitchell is an old hand at making live music match up with events on the big screen. He led the Orchestra in Herrmann’s score to Psycho last April, and in selections from both the 1940 and 2000 versions of Walt Disney’s Fantasia last December. Those projects resonate with Mitchell’s earliest musical experiences..." To read more, please click here.

Audio: "Vertigo" interview

Brett Mitchell joined radio legend Robert Conrad on WCLV this afternoon to discuss The Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming performance of Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo. To hear this interview, please click here.

Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra & Chorus to explore French music on February 8"

ClevelandClassical.com has published a preview of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's upcoming subscription concert, the second of their 2014-15 season. The program, led by music director Brett Mitchell this Sunday evening at Severance Hall, will include 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. To read this article, please click here.

Brett Mitchell on Bernard Herrmann

Brett Mitchell recently sat down with Cleveland Magazine to discuss three classic scores of noted film composer Bernard Herrmann. To read this article, please click here. Mr. Mitchell will lead a performance of Mr. Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo with The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday, February 13.