Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra releases film schedule for upcoming 'At the Movies' three-concert series

Crain's Cleveland Business has published an article previewing The Cleveland Orchestra's 2015-16 "At the Movies" series, which includes two productions led by Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell: Alan Silvestri's score for Back to the Future on December 10, 2015, and John Williams's score for Home Alone on December 16, 2015. To read this article, please click here.

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces 2015-16 season

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Brett Mitchell have announced their 2015-16 season, comprising five concerts in and around the Orchestra's home of Severance Hall.

The Orchestra’s 2015-16 Severance Hall season begins on Sunday, November 22, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. with a program consisting of Kevin Puts’s River’s Rush, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”), and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 (“Rhenish”). A special preview performance will take place on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria, Ohio.

The Orchestra will perform a special concert for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Open House at Severance Hall on Monday, January 18, 2016, at 4:15 p.m. In addition to excerpts of works from their first two subscription concerts of the season, the Orchestra will perform the final movements of African-American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Sinfonietta No. 1 and Lowell Liebermann's Flute Concerto with COYO alumna Rachel Johnstone.

The Orchestra’s second Severance Hall subscription concert of the season takes place on Friday, March 4, 2016, at 8:00 p.m. The program features Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Orchestra in performances of Brahms’s Schicksalslied [Song of Destiny] and Copland’s Canticle of Freedom.

The Orchestra’s third and final subscription concert of its 2015-16 Severance Hall season will be on Sunday, May 8, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. The program includes Richard Danielpour’s Toward the Splendid City and a work (to be announced in January 2016) featuring the winner of the Orchestra's 2015-16 concerto competition. Completing the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

To read an article previewing this season in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), please click here. To read the press release from The Cleveland Orchestra, please click here.

# # #

2015-16 SEASON OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
(All performances take place at Severance Hall unless otherwise noted.)

Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. (Stocker Arts Center - Elyria, OH)
Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
PUTS - River's Rush
BERNSTEIN - Symphony No. 1 ("Jeremiah")
SCHUMANN - Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish")

Monday, January 18, 2016 at 4:15 p.m.
SCHUMANN - Finale from Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish")
STRAVINSKY - "The Shrovetide Fair" and "Russian Dance" from Petrushka (1947 version)
LIEBERMANN - Finale from Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (Rachel Johnstone, flute)
PERKINSON - Finale from Sinfonietta No. 1
BERNSTEIN - "Profanation" from Symphony No. 1 ("Jeremiah")

Friday, March 4, 2016 at 8:00 p.m.
STRAVINSKY - Petrushka (1947 version)
BRAHMS - Schicksalslied (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)
COPLAND - Canticle of Freedom (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus)

Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
DANIELPOUR - Toward the Splendid City
CONCERTO - TBD (winner of COYO's 2015-16 concerto competition)
RACHMANINOFF - Symphonic Dances

Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra takes up American, contemporary music on 2015-16 season"

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a preview of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2015-16 concert season, highlighting music director Brett Mitchell's increased programming focus on contemporary American works:

CLEVELAND, Ohio – When it comes to repertoire, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is giving its parent ensemble a run for its money.

In its just-announced 2015-16 season, the youth ensemble has included a notably high concentration of American and contemporary music. Higher, in fact, than that of its namesake.

"Part of the joy for me in programming for our young musicians is showing them how well contemporary music and old favorites can live side by side," said COYO music director Brett Mitchell. "[M]y aim with all these pairings is to share with our young musicians and audiences that classical music is just as relevant and meaningful to us in America in the 21st century as ever."

Over three concerts, from November to May, the orchestra and Mitchell will perform no fewer than two works by living composers, both of whom are American. Also on the programs: the rarely heard "Canticle of Freedom," by that most famous of American composers, Copland, and Bernstein's "Jeremiah" Symphony No. 1.

Not that there's anything wrong with older, European repertoire. On that front, too, COYO plans to excel, with performances of Schumann's "Rhenish" Symphony No. 3, Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances," Stravinsky's "Petrushka," and Brahms' "Schicksalslied," with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Review: "Cleveland and Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestras thrive on evening led by assistant conductor Brett Mitchell"

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has reviewed Brett Mitchell's performances with The Cleveland Orchestra, soloist James Ehnes, and the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra, given on Saturday, August 1 at Blossom Music Center:

Doubt not the abilities of Brett Mitchell, assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. On his official Blossom Music Center debut Saturday, the ensemble's second-in-charge sagely handled a double-header, conducting five substantial works and treating the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra with finesse. Mitchell is well known here, of course. Not until Saturday, however, was it so clear why the conductor was recently promoted from assistant to associate and given a contract extension. On this occasion, in short, he proved himself repeatedly.

Mitchell had little trouble coaxing from the orchestra a reading [of Dvořák's The Noon Witch] that was taut, nuanced, and keenly dramatic. Thus did a short piece make a major impact... Mitchell truly had his hands full after the second intermission, when the combined Kent/Blossom and Cleveland Orchestras took on Bartók's great Concerto for Orchestra. Out of an ensemble large enough to fill the stage, Mitchell coaxed a spacious, imposing, and at times remarkable performance.

 To read the complete review, please click here.

Review: "As passionate and energized as I've heard in a long time from The Cleveland Orchestra"

ClevelandClassical has published a review of Brett Mitchell's performance with The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday, August 1, making particular note of the side-by-side performance of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra, which concluded the program:

This exuberant and expansive masterpiece from very near the end of the composer’s life is a test for any orchestra. Not only are the notes themselves fiercely difficult, but giving a sense of continuity and ensemble to this eclectic composition is an enormous challenge. To the credit of these excellent young musicians from the festival—and their side-by-side mentors in The Cleveland Orchestra—the performance was admirable. High-energy playing and pizzazz all around gave vitality to the quirky rhythms and often disjointed structures of Bartók’s brilliant score.

Brett Mitchell’s clear and highly controlled conducting was an essential part of keeping the vast forces of these combined groups on the same page. The enhanced string sections played with an extraordinary sound—the violin sections as passionate and energized as I’ve heard in a long time from The Cleveland Orchestra, and the violas as rich and mournful as Bartók would no doubt have wanted them.

To read the complete review, please click here.

Review: "Uncommonly poetic"

Bachtrack has reviewed Brett Mitchell's performance with The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday, August 1 at Blossom Music Center, particularly praising his work with soloist James Ehnes:

It was clear within a few moments of its beginning that this performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, with guest soloist James Ehnes, was going to be something special. Ehnes and Mitchell gave a reading that was uncommonly poetic, striking a balance between the concerto’s lyricism and drama, showing a thorough understanding of Barber’s brand of mid-century American romanticism... Mitchell managed the orchestral textures with transparency, while not inhibiting occasional rapturous outpourings.

To read the complete review, please click here.

Audio: The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center

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.

Brett Mitchell to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in scores for "Back to the Future" and "Home Alone"

Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in presentations of two classic film scores at Severance Hall in December 2015. On Wednesday, December 10, Mitchell and the Orchestra will present Back to the Future, for which composer Alan Silvestri has augmented his original score with approximately fifteen minutes of new music. On Tuesday, December 16, Mitchell will take the podium again for a presentation of Home Alone with John Williams's complete original score. To read the official press release from The Cleveland Orchestra, please click here.

Preview: "The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center: 10 picks for the 2015 classical season"

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a preview of the top ten performances of The Cleveland Orchestra's 2015 Blossom season, including Brett Mitchell's performance on Saturday, August 1. "Bartók's great Concerto for Orchestra receives the royal treatment in the form of a side-by-side performance with both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra under associate conductor Brett Mitchell." On the same program, Mr. Mitchell will also lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Dvořák's The Noon Witch and Barber's Violin Concerto with soloist James Ehnes; he will begin the evening with performances of Stravinsky's Danses concertantes and Prokofiev's Classical Symphony with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra. To read the complete article, please click here.

Video: China tour farewell speech

Brett Mitchell addresses the members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on the final evening of their four-city tour of China. To view this video, please click here.

Video: China tour wrap-up interview

David Burnett interviews Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra music director Brett Mitchell on the final evening of their four-city tour of China. To view this video, please click here.

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: Interview from Shanghai Oriental Art Center

David Burnett interviews Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra music director Brett Mitchell backstage at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center just prior to the ensemble's third performance of their four-city tour of China. To hear this interview, please click here.

Review: Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra "is one that many cities would be happy to have as their professional orchestra"

ClevelandClassical has published a review of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's send-off concert in advance of their four-city tour of China.

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 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.

After acknowledging the audience ovation, COYO gave a fitting good-bye with an encore — a Huang Ruo arrangement of a traditional Chinese folksong.

To read the complete review, please click here.

Video: Interview from Beijing's Tiananmen Square

David Burnett interviews Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra music director Brett Mitchell in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on the morning of the ensemble's first performance of their four-city tour of China. To view this video, please click here.

Review: Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performs at League of American Orchestras conference

ClevelandClassical has published a synopsis of the League of American Orchestras' annual conference held in Cleveland in May 2015, including a brief review of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's performance at its opening session. "On the first day, attendees trekked across the street from the Convention Center to Public Auditorium for the welcoming session and concert. Brett Mitchell led cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in a polished performance of Saint-Saëns’s 'The Swan' and a rambunctious interpretation of the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Weilerstein, an alumna of the youth orchestra, performed as principal cellist during the Tchaikovsky." To read the complete story, please click here.

Brett Mitchell receives commendations from Cleveland mayor and Confucius Institute

At this afternoon's send-off concert at Severance Hall, Brett Mitchell received commendations from Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson and the Confucius Institute in recognition of his upcoming four-city tour of China with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Mayor Jackson's commendation states in part, "I invite all citizens to join me in thanking Mr. Mitchell for his continuous efforts to promote cultural exchange and for being a positive role model for Cleveland Youth." The Confucius Institute's commendation was presented "in appreciation for your continuous efforts in promoting people-to-people friendship and cultural exchanges."

Profile: "Note Giver: Conductor Brett Mitchell wants to experience music with you"

Cleveland Magazine has published a profile of Brett Mitchell in their June 2015 issue, chronicling his 35-year musical journey from jazz and pop roots in his hometown of Seattle to being named The Cleveland Orchestra's first Associate Conductor in more than three decades.

Brett Mitchell wants to share—no, needs to share—the music he hears. "I find music, that for one reason or another, moves me, touches me," he says. "I share that with as many people as I can." Gregarious and often dramatic, Mitchell plays the piano as effortlessly as he talks, often falling into song as a soundtrack to demonstrate his point. Simply talking about the act of conducting, Mitchell often motions with his hands as if he's channeling energy to his musicians, who then transmit that force back out to the audience. Without all the necessary components, his desire to spread music falls flat. "You want to watch me do my job without musicians?" he says with a laugh. "It's just me moving my arms. That's sad and weird and creepy."

To read the complete story, please click here.