NEWS
Audio: "CIM Live Intermission: Brett Mitchell"
Photo by Peter Lockley
Brett Mitchell spoke with WCLV's Mark Satola during the intermission of the live broadcast of his performance last Wednesday with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. To hear this interview, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra & Chorus Perform at Severance Hall"
Brett Mitchell conducts the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in performance at Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CoolCleveland has published a brief preview of the second subscription concert of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2016-17 season on Sunday, February 19:
This week, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will perform at Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus. Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor/COYO music director Brett Mitchell will lead the young musicians in a program that includes Sea-Blue Circuitry, a new piece by American composer Mason Bates, Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes and Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. Lisa Wong directs the chorus, and soprano Marian Vogel solos.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra to Host a Special Violins of Hope Encore Presentation and Concert"
Brett Mitchell and The Cleveland Orchestra will reprise their popular "Violins of Hope" education program next month. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Cleveland Scene has published a preview of Brett Mitchell's upcoming education programs with The Cleveland Orchestra:
For the past two decades, Amnon Weinstein has restored violins that survived the Holocaust. In 2015, seven local cultural arts organizations worked together to bring the instruments to Cleveland with an array plays, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, films and other public events.
A Violins of Hope exhibition featuring the violins and their individual stories at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage resulted from the community-wide collaboration, and the orchestra played the instruments at a special concert.
The Cleveland Orchestra today announced it will revisit the collaboration with a series of special programs....
Violins of Hope Education Concerts will take place from March 8 to 10 at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.
Conducted by The Cleveland Orchestra’s Associate Conductor, Brett Mitchell, the concerts will feature Cleveland Orchestra First Associate Concertmaster Peter Otto and Assistant Principal Cellist Charles Bernard. The program includes the following: Bloch’s "Simchas Torah" [Rejoicing] from Baal Shem; Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Opus 47; Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Opus 34; and John Williams’s Main Theme from Schindler's List.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra presents encores of Violins Of Hope education concerts"
Cleveland Patch has published a preview of Brett Mitchell's upcoming series of concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra:
Following the success of the 2015 Violins of Hope Education Concerts performed by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall for nearly 10,000 students, thousands more will enjoy encore presentations of the Violins of Hope Education Concert March 8-10, performed this time at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at the Temple-Tifereth Israel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University....
These concerts are based on the original December 2015 Violins of Hope Education Concerts, a collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House Master of Fine Arts Program in Acting. In these Cleveland Orchestra Education Concerts, music and drama were combined to express the themes of spirit, resistance, resilience, and hope. This special program created a powerful lens through which the audience was able to view the important role of music in Jewish life, before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Conducted by The Cleveland Orchestra’s Associate Conductor, Brett Mitchell, the March 2017 concerts will feature Cleveland Orchestra First Associate Concertmaster Peter Otto and Assistant Principal Cellist Charles Bernard. The program includes Bloch’s Simchas Torah [Rejoicing] from Baal Shem; Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Opus 47; Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Opus 34; and John Williams’s [Main Theme] from Schindler's List for Violin and Orchestra....
ideastream, the region’s multiple media public service organization that includes WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN, and WCLV 104.9, will record the March Violins of Hope Education Concert. The concert will be available via ideastream.org for permanent educational use by teachers, paired with Facing History and Ourselves’ Holocaust curriculum.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra schedules revival of popular 'Violins of Hope' education concert"
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a reprise of their popular "Violins of Hope" education program next month.
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a preview of an upcoming program Brett Mitchell will lead with The Cleveland Orchestra:
A key element of the 2015 "Violins of Hope" project is returning to Cleveland.
Long after the exhibition and other main "Violins of Hope" events have passed, the Cleveland Orchestra has arranged three encore performances of the project's highly successful education concert for families and children.
Only this time, the concerts will take place not at Severance Hall but at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, in The Temple-Tifereth Israel, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.
One concert, at noon on Wednesday, March 8, will be ticketed and open to the public. The others, March 9 and 10, will be private events for area students....
A kind of miniature version of the larger project, the "Violins of Hope" education concert is a collaborative event featuring both music and theater. Through music and spoken dialogue, artists explore the critical roles music played in the lives of Jewish people before, during and after the Holocaust.
The program is as follows: Prokofiev's "Overture on Hebrew Themes", the Allegro Molto from Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, Bloch's "Simchas Torah", Bruch's "Kol Nidrei", the Main Theme from "Schindler's List" by John Williams, and Rossini's Overture to "The Silken Ladder."
Featured on the program will be first associate concertmaster Peter Otto and assistant principal cellist Charles Bernard. Associate conductor Brett Mitchell will conduct and actor-professor Donald Carrier will direct.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra releases 2017 Blossom Calendar"
Brett Mitchell will preside over a trio of performances to conclude The Cleveland Orchestra's 2017 Blossom Music Festival. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
ClevelandClassical has published a story about about The Cleveland Orchestra's newly announced 2017 Blossom Music Festival season, featuring a trio of performances over Labor Day weekend under the baton of Brett Mitchell in his final performances as the orchestra's associate conductor:
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2017 Blossom Music Festival calendar, which features 21 concerts between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Special tributes will include...a screening of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, shown in HD with the score by John Williams performed live on the last three nights of the season.
Friday, September 1, 2017, at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 2, 2017, at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 3, 2017, at 8:30 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell, conductor
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial shown in HD on the big screen with the score performed live by The Cleveland Orchestra.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Audio: Brett Mitchell previews upcoming Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra concert
Brett Mitchell leads the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in performance at Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Brett Mitchell spoke with WCLV's Bill O'Connell about the next concert in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2016-17 season, presented on Sunday, February 19 at Severance Hall:
In its annual collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra opens this concert with a new piece by American composer Mason Bates [Sea-Blue Circuitry]. The remainder of the program features two French works—lush and beautiful—with the women of chorus singing in Claude Debussy's Nocturnes and the full chorus (and soprano soloist) joining in for Francis Poulenc's passionate and effervescent Gloria.
To hear this interview, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra pulls back the curtain on a diverse 2017 Blossom Festival season"
Brett Mitchell will preside over a trio of performances to conclude The Cleveland Orchestra's 2017 Blossom Music Festival. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a story about about The Cleveland Orchestra's newly announced 2017 Blossom Music Festival season, featuring a trio of performances over Labor Day weekend under the baton of Brett Mitchell in his final performances as the orchestra's associate conductor:
The program likely to attract the biggest audience is the season finale: John Williams' "E.T.," in a live performance in time with the film. Wise to the popularity of film concerts, the orchestra has scheduled three performances of "E.T.," in an effort to prevent overcrowding.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Something for everyone at Blossom Music Festival"
Brett Mitchell will preside over a trio of performances to conclude The Cleveland Orchestra's 2017 Blossom Music Festival. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Akron Beacon Journal has published a story about The Cleveland Orchestra's newly announced 2017 Blossom Music Festival season, featuring a trio of season-concluding performances over Labor Day weekend under the baton of Brett Mitchell in his final performances as the orchestra's associate conductor::
Sept. 1-3, 8:30 p.m. — E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, film shown in HD on big screens with John Williams’ score performed live. The Cleveland Orchestra; Brett Mitchell, conductor. Fireworks, weather permitting.
To read the complete article, please click here.
"Cleveland Orchestra spends day nurturing future listeners and musicians in South Florida"
Brett Mitchell leads a feedback session with members of The Cleveland Orchestra after reading new works by six student composers at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. (Photo by Zachary Lewis)
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published an article about several of The Cleveland Orchestra's educational initiatives during their 2017 Miami residency, including several events led by Brett Mitchell on Tuesday, January 31:
Brett Mitchell leads members of The Cleveland Orchestra in reading sessions of new works by six student composers at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. (Photo by Zachary Lewis)
The day began at Coral Reef High School, a "mega" magnet school in Southwest Miami. There, associate conductor Brett Mitchell and a large group of players took part in a "side by side" rehearsal with members of the school's student orchestra.
No watered-down fare here. With help from their professional mentors, the students performed excerpts from the very repertoire the Cleveland Orchestra itself has been playing of late: Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 and Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides" Overture.
Most of the instruction took the form of private conversations between Cleveland Orchestra members and Coral Reef students. Those are always the meat of "side by side" rehearsals.
Still, Mitchell had a few words of wisdom for the group as a whole. Rehearsing the Sibelius, he noted that great musicians are also expert listeners, and know when and how to yield to a colleague (in this case, a flute) who belongs in the foreground.
"It's not about how softly you play," Mitchell explained. "It's about how transparently you can play."
Shortly thereafter, Mitchell and four other members of the orchestra made their way north to Coral Gables, to the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. There, in keeping with a now decade-long tradition, the musicians played through and commented on six new works by student composers.
For the six young artists in question, it was a momentous occasion. Any performance, for a budding author of music, is a rare treat. But a performance by a quartet from the Cleveland Orchestra, with live feedback? Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: Brett Mitchell and the Colorado Symphony welcome composer Kevin Puts
Kevin Puts will attend the second night of the Colorado Symphony's performance of Symphony No. 2 under the baton of Music Director Designate Brett Mitchell. (Photo by David White)
Westword (Denver) has published an interview with composer Kevin Puts in advance of the Colorado Symphony's performances of his Second Symphony this weekend under the baton of Music Director Designate Brett Mitchell:
What happens when you juxtapose Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, an orchestral masterpiece whose sublime grandeur seems impossible to rival, with contemporary composer Kevin Puts's much gentler (albeit not that gentle) Symphony No. 2, a modern orchestral work written in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks?
Audiences will find out tonight, January 27, and tomorrow, January 28, when the Colorado Symphony performs both, conducted by Music Director Designate Brett Mitchell....
[Kevin Puts:] "The orchestral world tends to be very backward-looking. The thing is, [Colorado Symphony Music Director Designate] Brett Mitchell, who I've known for quite some time, he and I love works of the past. We'll sit there, talking and playing them on the piano for each other for hours. I'm most interested in what is possible today, what can be said today, the music that hasn't been written yet or that is being written right now. Brett is a real advocate for new music. It's not something he just thinks he should do. He really believes it."
To read the complete article, please click here.
"Colorado Symphony Launches Its Own Label, Details First Release"
Brett Mitchell conducts the Colorado Symphony at Boettcher Concert Hall in December 2016. (Photo by Brandon Marshall)
Colorado Public Radio has published an article about the Colorado Symphony's announcement of the launch of its own record label:
The Colorado Symphony today announced the immediate release of its new album, a recording of the orchestra and its chorus performing Beethoven's beloved Symphony No. 9.
The album release itself was a surprise, but so was the distribution plan. The orchestra issued it as a digital download and on CD under a new label called Colorado Symphony Multimedia & Recording. (Naxos of America will help distribute the music.)
The move puts the Denver orchestra in a league with the Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and other major ensembles that run their own record labels....
Listeners get another chance to hear Beethoven's Ninth played live by the symphony next Friday and Saturday with conductor Brett Mitchell, who assumes the role of music director this fall.
To read the complete article, please click here.
"Cleveland Orchestra gets right down to business on first full day of Indiana University residency"
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Indiana University orchestras in Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration on Wednesday, January 18. (Photo by Justin Holden)
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a story about The Cleveland Orchestra's residency at Indiana University, the first of three stops on their 2017 Midwest Tour:
A sizable portion of the group finished up at 8:30 p.m., after an evening side-by-side rehearsal with student musicians. Over this impactful event, associate conductor Brett Mitchell presided efficiently, leading the large combined orchestra through Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration" while also giving the Cleveland musicians time to work with students in their sections individually.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra planning brief but high-impact tour of the Midwest"
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Indiana University orchestras in Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration next week in Bloomington. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Plain Dealer has published a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming Midwest tour, during which "associate conductor Brett Mitchell will preside over perhaps the most valuable offerings, two side-by-side rehearsals" of Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration with the Indiana University orchestras. To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "For 2017 Grant Park Music Festival, music and finances join in sunny harmony"
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Grant Park Orchestra in July 2017 with a program of Kenji Bunch, Saint-Saëns, and Copland.
The Chicago Tribune has published a preview of the Grant Park Music Festival's 2017 season, including details about Brett Mitchell's debut with the Grant Park Orchestra:
Classical buffs have long appreciated Grant Park as a place to discover conductors who are creating buzz in the outside music world but, for one reason or another, have not been heard in Chicago. Three such podium debuts are highly anticipated this summer — those of Fawzi Haimor, Simone Young and Brett Mitchell....
Mitchell, associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and music director of its youth orchestra, will become the fourth music director of the Colorado Symphony beginning this fall. He will make his Grant Park bow July 19 with a program of Copland, Bunch and Saint-Saëns.
To read the complete article, please click here. To read an additional article in Chicago Classical Review, please click here.
Debut with the Grant Park Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Grant Park Orchestra in July 2017 with a program of Kenji Bunch, Saint-Saëns, and Copland.
Brett Mitchell will make his debut with the Grant Park Orchestra on Wednesday, July 19 during the 2017 Grant Park Music Festival, the organization announced on Wednesday:
Conductor Brett Mitchell leads the orchestra and rising star Angelo Xiang Yu in Saint-Saëns' romantic Violin Concerto No. 3. The evening opens with Kenji Bunch's uplifting Supermaximum and closes with The Red Pony, Aaron Copland's film score adapted from the John Steinbeck 1933 novella.
To learn more, please visit the following links:
Preview: "Brett Mitchell’s big CSO moment"
Brett Mitchell begins a four-year tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in 2017.
The Denver Post has published a list of "10 Denver arts and culture events to look forward to in 2017," which includes Brett Mitchell's inaugural concert as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony on Saturday, September 9:
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra welcomes its new music director, Brett Mitchell, with a showy kickoff, a season-starting concert featuring opera superstar Renée Fleming as the special guest. All eyes, and ears, will be on Mitchell, who at just 37, was hired to replace Andrew Litton this year, becoming one of the youngest maestros to lead a major orchestra.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Year in review: "The Colorado Symphony finds its next maestro"
Brett Mitchell, who will become music director of the Colorado Symphony in 2017, leading the Cleveland Orchestra in concert. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Colorado Public Radio has listed Brett Mitchell's appointment as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony as the top classical music story of 2016:
The next music director of the Colorado Symphony is in his mid-30s, comes from the Cleveland Orchestra and fell in love with orchestral music partly because of John Williams’ film scores. Brett Mitchell will lead the symphony at Boettcher Concert Hall for [four] years beginning in September 2017. He replaces Andrew Litton, who left the symphony to take the helm of the New York City Ballet. Get to know Mitchell through our in-depth interview.
Also included in this article is an audio retrospective, transcribed below:
Mitchell: Even the very best orchestras and the very best conductors, sometimes when they get together, it just doesn't quite gel. But from the very first downbeat of our first rehearsal, the Colorado Symphony and I seemed to just hit it off gangbusters, so I couldn't have been more thrilled to get the call.
Announcer: It was a bit like love at first sight. After the Colorado Symphony announced a reduced role for music director Andrew Litton, the search began for a new music director, and one who would hopefully live in Denver and be here for a long time. Brett Mitchell conducted the orchestra this past summer. It was a concert of season previews for the upcoming season, and that's all it took before everyone gave the partnership a big thumbs-up.
Mitchell: The thing that the Colorado Symphony does so well that I experienced on the performance that we gave together back in July: There were ten little pieces in all of these different styles, and it was just amazing to me how easily the Colorado Symphony was able to shift between the styles of Richard Strauss and then Beethoven and then Brahms, but then also John Williams and Leroy Anderson. There's no weak spot in the Colorado Symphony's repertory, so that means that the kind of dreaming I can do in terms of what we're able to program is just totally unlimited, and that's very exciting to somebody that has as diverse a musical background as I do.
To read the complete article and listen to this retrospective, please click here.
Year in review: Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra included in list of top ten performances of 2016
Brett Mitchell leads the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 at Severance Hall in November 2016. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published its annual year-end review of the top ten concerts of 2016, which includes for the first time a performance by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra under the baton of music director Brett Mitchell:
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra had a watershed moment this fall. With caring oversight by music director (and Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor) Brett Mitchell, the ensemble undertook and successfully performed its first Bruckner symphony, the mammoth Symphony No. 4. That's not all. On the same jaw-dropping program, in November, the group also carried off the world premiere of "Fountain of Youth," an evocative and remarkably apt work by Roger Briggs, Mitchell's former teacher.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Preview: "Cleveland Orchestra releases MLK Celebration Concert program and free ticket information"
Brett Mitchell will lead the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in a special performance commemorating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, January 16. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) has published a preview of The Cleveland Orchestra's 2017 MLK celebrations:
In continued celebration of MLK, the orchestra also will hold a free open house from noon to 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 16. Look and listen for performances by...the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, with conductor Brett Mitchell.
To read the complete preview, please click here. To read an additional preview in Cleveland Scene, please click here.