NEWS
Audio: 'Sounds and Reflections from The Cleveland Orchestra's First Rehearsal in 16 Months'
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center on July 3, 2021, marking the orchestra’s first public performance since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — WKSU 89.7 has published an audio story about The Cleveland Orchestra’s return to live performances, featuring an interview with Brett Mitchell, who led the orchestra’s first live concerts since March 2020 earlier this month.
Classical music has returned to Northeast Ohio after more than a year of silence.
The first time the world-renowned orchestra was back together to rehearse for its July 4 weekend concerts.
Former Cleveland Orchestra associate conductor Brett Mitchell led the program, serving as guest conductor.
At the opening of its first rehearsal, Mitchell addressed the orchestra as it prepared to play “Soul of Remembrance” by Mary D. Watkins.
“Do we want to do nothing but ‘sis boom bah’ right now, or do we want to acknowledge why we have not been together for the last 16 months? So, that’s why we’re going to do this piece,” Mitchell said.
He addressed the orchestra, stating that it would play in commemoration of the 600,000 Americans who died from the coronavirus and the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020.
“The whole piece is called ‘Five Movements in Color,’” he said. “It’s supposed to be a statement about the African-American experience. And this is the second movement.”
He said the piece is bittersweet is and nostalgic. It’s a song of sorrow and hope.
Mitchell said although so much has happened in the last year and the orchestra had not joined together to play music in some time, it was able to pick back up right where it left off for the rehearsal.
“Have they not played together, all of them, for 16 months? Yes, that’s true. And how long did it take before everything locked back in? I don’t know, 90 seconds or something like that,” he said.
Mitchell said seeing the clarinet players sitting together in a row, without social distancing, was a big change.
During the pandemic, he recorded videos of himself playing piano at home and uploaded them to YouTube.
“But that’s not what I wanted to spend my career doing,” Mitchell said. “I want to be with people. I want to make music with people. As a conductor, I really can’t do what I do without other people.”
Mitchell was on the conducting staff of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2013 to 2017, serving as assistant conductor and then associate conductor. In 2017, he became the music director of the Colorado Symphony.
When he was asked to guest conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for the July 4 concerts, he led the group in performing works by American composers, including Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa.
“What I’ve really thought about is not primarily making music. It’s primarily everybody being together again and what that feels like,” he said.
To read the complete story and hear audio from The Cleveland Orchestra’s first rehearsal after the Coronavirus pandemic, please click here.
Reviews: Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra's return to Blossom
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center on July 3, 2021, marking the orchestra’s first public performance since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Several additional media outlets have published reviews of Brett Mitchell’s opening weekend performances of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. (See below or click here to read the reviews from Cleveland.com and ClevelandClassical.com.)
Conductor Brett Mitchell, who has a long history with the Cleveland Orchestra as assistant, associate and guest conductor, had started the concert with a rather laid-back version of Leonard Bernstein’s overture to Candide, perhaps spaciously paced to allow the work’s sparkling lines to register in the reverberant acoustic of the Blossom Music Center’s pavilion, made even more resonant by the socially-distanced seating of audience members (though the lawn was packed with what must have been a record crowd for an orchestra concert).
Mary J. Watkins’s ‘Soul of Remembrance’ was another of the three works on the program by African-American composers. It is a solemn balance of spiritual-inspired lyricism over a steadily tolling slow march, and is one of the sections of Watkins’s Five Movements of Color. Mitchell introduced the piece with a moment of silence and dedicated it to the memory of those lost in the pandemic.
The second half of the concert opened with Adolphus Hailstork’s ‘An American Fanfare’, his response to Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. Though not as interesting as some of Hailstork’s larger orchestral works, it was a great showpiece for the Cleveland Orchestra brass, which as a section is the strongest it has ever been.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring suite was given a sure-handed performance under Mitchell’s baton, and even the 1812 Overture and ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ were played passionately in a concert where the musicians were clearly delighted to be on stage, and the listeners were overjoyed to have them there once again.
The official program, conducted by Brett Mitchell, was an eclectic mix drawn from various traditions. It began with a spirited rendition of the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. One might argue that the musical — based on Voltaire’s cynical take on human nature — had nothing to do with July 4th, but that one would not be me because it’s a favorite piece so who cares?
This was followed by works by under-celebrated African American composers. The first was Mary D. Watkins’ meditative “Soul of Remembrance” from Five Movements in Color. Next came Concerto in One Movement by the better-known Florence Price, with a fine and dramatic presentation by pianist Michelle Cann. The last work was Adolphus Hailstork’s “An American Fanfare.” One hopes works by these composers will continue to be heard in coming seasons.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
Review: The Cleveland Orchestra Returns to Blossom
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center on July 3, 2021, marking the orchestra’s first public performance since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Brett Mitchell led The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening weekend of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival on July 3 and 4, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. The following are excerpts from ClevelandClassical.com’s review of Sunday evening’s concert:
It was March 20, 2020, when The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst gave their last concert as a complete ensemble before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live performances for more than a year. The Orchestra, with guest conductor Brett Mitchell, returned triumphantly to Blossom Music Center on July 3 and 4 to celebrate Independence Day.
Three works by African American composers were the highlights of the concert. All of them should be adopted into the Orchestra’s standard repertoire. Mary D. Watkins’ “Soul of Remembrance” from Five Movements in Color (1993) was especially moving. The mood is both nostalgic and bittersweet, with beautiful melodies and lush, American Romantic harmonies and orchestrations. There is a slow, steady pulse throughout as the musical material develops, with wind descants soaring above the melody, finally reaching a full-orchestra climax before fading back to a single violin note at the conclusion. If the other movements of Watkins’ suite are of this quality, the whole set should be performed. This composer, born in 1939 and still living, deserves attention from a broad audience.
The real “find” on this program was Adolphus Hailstork’s 1985 An American Fanfare for brass and percussion — Hailstork’s response to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, but with more musical substance and variety, and treacherous, jagged leaps across octaves.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring made its almost obligatory appearance, in a pristine, carefully developed performance.
To read the complete review, please click here.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
Review: Cleveland Orchestra gathers again at Blossom for specially meaningful ‘American Celebration’
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center on July 3, 2021, marking the orchestra’s first public performance since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Brett Mitchell led The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening weekend of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival on July 3 and 4, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. The following are excerpts from Cleveland.com’s review of Saturday evening’s concert:
Never before has the phrase “Blossom Music Festival” rung so true. On this occasion, there was indeed something to celebrate. The sense of post-pandemic release was palpable, and the first sounds of the full orchestra surely brought a lump to many a throat. By night’s end, before a fireworks display, the official attendance was an estimated 11,600.
The music reflected the festive mood, in a novel way. Even as it marked the nation’s 245th birthday, the program, which kicked off with a snappy account of Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture and included works by three African-Americans, also reflected society more broadly and inclusively than most Cleveland Orchestra concerts. This was a celebration of America and its music as they are, not as one group of people once imagined them to be.
The earth-shaking cannons that augmented Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture certainly got their point across, and there’s no beating Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” but to this listener, the most effective work of the night was “Soul of Remembrance,” a 1993 work by Mary Watkins steeped in the historically resilient African-American spirit.
Brett Mitchell, the orchestra’s former associate conductor, preceded the lyrical, slow-burning work with a moment of silence for the victims of COVID-19 before leading a tender but powerfully emotional reading in which the harp was a vital presence.
Another welcome piece of non-standard fare was the 1934 Concerto in One Movement by another African-American, Florence Price. Cleveland-trained pianist Michelle Cann, a champion of Price’s music, handled the recently rediscovered score with panache, treating its three sections to animated, compelling performances.
A third African-American composer, Adolphus Hailstork, kicked off the second half with “An American Fanfare,” a solemn, brass-intensive work strongly reminiscent of Copland, whose Suite from “Appalachian Spring” followed on its heels. No doubt parts of the often-delicate Suite were lost on the lawn, but in the pavilion, every measure of this well-known score, up to and including “Simple Gifts,” sparkled as if the orchestra and the audience were encountering it for the first time.
Truly, it was an Independence Day concert like no other by the Cleveland Orchestra. There were fireworks, funnel cakes, and patriotic classics, but there was also real emotion, musical depth, and the introduction of new possibilities. The Cleveland Orchestra is back and in some respects may be better than ever.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Cleveland 19 News (CBS) has also published a brief story about the event: Cleveland Orchestra performs in person for first time in more than a year at Blossom.
Photographs by Roger Mastroianni
Previews: Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra's return to Blossom
CLEVELAND — As Brett Mitchell prepares to lead the opening weekend of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Blossom Music Festival, several news outlets have published previews of this program, excerpted below.
• CLEVELAND.COM •
2021 Cleveland Orchestra Blossom Music Festival calendar: A return to live music
The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Blossom Music Festival kicks off this July 3-4 with a pair of holiday weekend concerts, both capped with fireworks. It’s the first time the orchestra will perform in front of a live audience since March of 2020.
The ensemble will be under the baton of conductor Brett Mitchell, with Michelle Cann as guest on piano. The concerts will be festive, holiday affairs, featuring works by Bernstein, Copland, Tchaikovsky, Sousa and more.
• CLEVELAND.COM •
Grand reunion ahead as Cleveland Orchestra opens 2021 Blossom Festival season
Music lovers aren’t the only ones headed for a major reunion at Blossom Music Center this weekend. No, the Cleveland Orchestra itself is also about to enjoy an important homecoming. When it convenes at its summer home with former associate conductor Brett Mitchell this Independence Day weekend, it’ll be the first time the full ensemble has appeared together since March 2020. “This is quite serious,” said chief brand officer Ross Binnie. “I think it will be extremely emotional. To see so many friends and fans I think will be powerful indeed. I think this will be one concert to say you were at.” …
Even as it celebrates the nation’s 245th birthday with fireworks and traditional favorites like Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” and Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture, the orchestra also will take some of its first steps on a new mission to better represent the country as a whole. Much of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival season consists of favorites, pieces Gidalevich called “chestnuts.” … This weekend, though, the orchestra is thinking along much different lines. It’s starting off featuring relatively unsung masterworks: music by three African-Americans, two of them women. In the mix with beloved works by Bernstein and Copland will be “An American Fanfare,” by Adolphus Hailstork; Concerto in One Movement, by Florence Price; and “Soul of Remembrance,” by Mary Watkins. “It’s a hard sweet spot to hit, but we made a concerted effort to make sure this looks more like an American program than in previous years,” [artistic administrator Ilya] Gidalevich said.
• CLEVELANDCLASSICAL.COM •
The Cleveland Orchestra Returns to Blossom Music Center
“The program is titled ‘An American Celebration,’ and while I’m certain there have been countless Fourth of July concerts over the decades with the same name, for me, this program feels truly American,” Mitchell said during a telephone conversation. “We’re certainly not going to ignore the holiday, so there will be the pieces that are associated with it — the 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever — but there was a desire to have the program be reflective of times that we are living in and that we have lived through since the Orchestra and audiences were last together.” …
Mitchell, who served on the Orchestra’s conducting staff from 2013 to 2017, noted that the evenings will open with Bernstein’s celebratory Overture. “We didn’t want a concert full of sis-boom-bah American repertoire, we wanted to acknowledge where we are and where we have been. And part of where we have been — as if anybody needs to be reminded why the Orchestra has not been able to perform for live audiences for sixteen months — is that we’ve all lived through a very difficult time. But that’s not entirely true because half a million of us did not survive the pandemic. So after the Candide we’ll play this gorgeous, heartbreaking piece, Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance.”
The conductor said that he was introduced to the Watkins piece by a member of the Colorado Symphony. “Miss Watkins is a Denver-based African American composer, and when my friend played it for me I thought ‘my, this is beautiful.’” Mitchell described the piece as quiet and in places meditative. “She has a wonderful voice and a wonderful gift for immediate expression. I was only introduced to her music a couple of months ago and I can’t wait to dive into more of it. She seems to have a real knack for being able to communicate directly with the listener. There’s nothing opaque about it.” …
Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement will feature pianist Michelle Cann, a graduate of both the Cleveland and Curtis Institutes of Music, and who now teaches at Curtis. “The piece is only eighteen minutes long but there’s so much wonderful material it feels like a Brahms concerto,” Mitchell said. “The music is just glorious and my great hope is that it will find its way into the permanent piano concerto repertoire. And it should because it is a sensational piece of music. I can guarantee that people are going to love it.” Click here to read Jarrett Hoffman’s interview with Michelle Cann.
Having had the opportunity to speak to Brett Mitchell on numerous occasions during his time in Cleveland, one thing that always struck me was his unabashed enthusiasm for newly-composed and long-neglected works. “I was a composer before I was a conductor, so I know what it’s like to write a piece and then hope that someone will play it,” he said. “I became a conductor to be the composer’s advocate and Mary D. Watkins and Florence Price deserve to be heard. If I can do anything to help introduce this great music to new ears, that’s the most fulfilling thing I can do.”
• NEW VIDEO RELEASE •
Aaron Copland: Introduction from Appalachian Spring
Mr. Mitchell has also recorded a solo piano arrangement of the Introduction from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, one of the works featured on the second half of this program. View the complete performance below, or watch on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Brett Mitchell to open 2021 Blossom Music Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening weekend of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival, marking the orchestra’s first public performances since March 2020. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Published April 11, 2021 Updated May 6, 2021
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will lead the opening weekend of the 2021 Blossom Music Festival, marking the orchestra’s first public performances in over a year. The complete program, presented on July 3 and 4, will be as follows:
For more information, please visit the 2021 Blossom Music Festival season announcement, the event page for Mr. Mitchell’s performance with the orchestra, and the following press articles:
Akron.com (May 6): ‘Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Music Festival to return’
Akron Beacon Journal (May 3): ‘Cleveland Orchestra launches Blossom single ticket sales, announces soloists’
Broadway World (May 3): ‘2021 Blossom Music Festival Individual Tickets on Sale Now’
Akron Beacon Journal (Apr 11): ‘Cleveland Orchestra unveils 2021 Blossom Music Festival season’
Cleveland.com (Apr 11): ‘Cleveland Orchestra to perform at least 11 concerts with live audiences this summer at Blossom Music Center’
WCPN (Apr 11): ‘Full Cleveland Orchestra And Audience Return To Blossom In July’
Broadway World (Apr 11): ‘The Cleveland Orchestra Announces 2021 Blossom Music Festival’
Cleveland Classical (Apr 12): ‘BLOSSOM 2021’
Cleveland 19 News (Apr 12): ‘Cleveland Orchestra to hold Blossom Music Festival this summer’
Brett Mitchell’s return to River Oaks Chamber Orchestra to feature two world premieres
Mr. Mitchell will lead new works by composers Reena Esmail (L) and Quinn Mason (R) with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in April 2021.
Published April 28, 2020 Updated April 26, 2021
HOUSTON - Following his debut in February 2019, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to the podium to lead two world premieres on their 2020-21 season finale.
The program will feature the first performance of The History of Red, a co-commission by Reena Esmail based on a text by Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, with soprano Kathryn Mueller as soloist. Mr. Mitchell will also lead the world premiere of Princesa de la Luna by Quinn Mason.
The complete program:
ERROLLYN WALLEN - Photography
BARBER - Knoxville: Summer of 1915
QUINN MASON - Princesa de la Luna [world premiere]
FALLA - ‘Danse espagnole’ from La vida breve
REENA ESMAIL - The History of Red [world premiere]
SURINACH - Ritmo Jondo: Flamenco for Orchestra (feat. live dance from Solero Flamenco)
The concert will be streamed live on Saturday, April 24, 2021, from The Church of St. John the Divine in Houston.
For more information, please visit the event page, and read the following previews:
Houston Chronicle: ROCO sees ‘Red’ with Reena Esmail composition this weekend
Houstonia: Meet Quinn Mason, the Up-and-Coming Composer Coming to Houston
Houston Press: Best Virtual Bets
Mr. Mitchell previews the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra’s 16th season finale: ‘Flamenco.’
Mr. Mitchell and soprano Kathryn Mueller offer a sneak peek of Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
Brett Mitchell to lead The Cleveland Orchestra's 2021 holiday festival
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Holiday Concerts in Severance Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead their 2021 Holiday Concerts, a series of a dozen performances running from Thursday, December 9 through Sunday, December 19.
Repertoire and guest artists will be announced in fall 2021, but tickets are on sale now.
For more information, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/holiday.
Video: Brett Mitchell explores Copland’s ‘The Tender Land’
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has released a new video exploring Aaron Copland’s Suite from The Tender Land.
Presented live at Boettcher Concert Hall in April 2018 as part of a program entitled The American Voice, Mr. Mitchell leads the Colorado Symphony in demonstrations exploring what makes the 1954 opera sound so distinctly American.
All three movements of the Suite are explored:
I. Introduction and Love Music
II. Party Scene
III. Finale: The Promise of Living
Watch the complete demonstration above, or learn more on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Video: Brett Mitchell plays Barber, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky
Brett Mitchell records music of Samuel Barber at home in January 2021.
Published Jan 27, 2021 Updated Mar 25, 2021
DENVER — Brett Mitchell has released several new recordings of brief works by Samuel Barber, Igor Stravinsky, and Modest Mussorgsky.
Samuel Barber
Blues from Excursions
Samuel Barber
To My Steinway
Igor Stravinsky
Chorale from Symphonies of Wind instruments
Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Igor Stravinsky)
Chorus from the Prologue to Boris Godunov
Video: Brett Mitchell performs Leonard Bernstein
Published Oct 14, 2020 Updated Mar 22, 2021
DENVER — To commemorate various occasions, Brett Mitchell has recorded several of Leonard Bernstein’s Anniversaries at the piano.
Video: The Mitchells present 'A Season of Song: A Spring Recital'
DENVER — Following the success of their 2020 holiday special, Christmas with the Mitchells, soprano Angela Mitchell and pianist Brett Mitchell are back with a new, half-hour musical special to celebrate the arrival of spring: A Season of Song.
Filmed in the living room of their home in the foothills outside Denver, the Mitchells share some of their favorite spring-themed music:
Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (Tommy Wolf)
You Must Believe In Spring (Michel Legrand)
Frühlingsglaube (Franz Schubert)
In The Springtime (Betty Jackson King) (sneak peek)
The Daisies (Samuel Barber) (sneak peek)
Nature, The Gentlest Mother (Aaron Copland)
It Might As Well Be Spring (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
Younger Than Springtime (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
Watch the trailer, and view the complete special below.
Brett Mitchell returns to the San Antonio Symphony in 2021-22 season
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Symphony has announced its 2021-22 performance season, with Brett Mitchell returning to lead a program of works by Missy Mazzoli, Tchaikovsky, and Ravel on November 5 and 6, 2021. The complete program will be:
MISSY MAZZOLI - Holy Roller
TCHAIKOVSKY - Violin Concerto
Angelo Xiang Yu, violin
RAVEL - Valses nobles et sentimentales
RAVEL - La valse
For more information, please view the San Antonio Symphony’s season announcement and these stories in the San Antonio Express-News (subscription required) and the San Antonio Report.
Video: The Mitchells commemorate Black History Month
Brett and Angela Mitchell record music of African American composers at home in February 2021.
Published Feb 5, 2021 Updated Feb 26, 2021
DENVER — Every Friday throughout Black History Month, Brett Mitchell and his wife, soprano Angela Mitchell, released a new recording of an art song by an African American composer.
H. Leslie Adams
“For you there is no song”
On February 5, the Mitchells released “For You There Is No Song” (1960) by Cleveland native H. Leslie Adams (b. 1932).
JOHN W. WORK III
“SOLILOQUY”
On February 26, the Mitchells released “Soliloquy” (1946) by Tennessee native John W. Work III (1901-67).
Brett Mitchell to step down from Colorado Symphony after five seasons as artistic leader
Brett Mitchell will step down as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony on June 30, 2021. (Photo by Amanda Tipton)
Published Jan 29, 2021 Updated Feb 9, 2021
DENVER — After five seasons at the artistic helm of the Colorado Symphony, Brett Mitchell will step down from his post on June 30, 2021. Mr. Mitchell has served as Music Director since the 2017-18 season, and previously served as Music Director Designate during the 2016-17 season.
From the official press release from the Colorado Symphony:
During Mitchell’s five-season tenure, he is credited with deepening the orchestra’s engagement with its audience via in-depth demonstrations from both the podium and the piano. He also expanded the orchestra’s commitment to contemporary American repertoire—with a particular focus on the music of Mason Bates, Missy Mazzoli, and Kevin Puts—through world premieres, recording projects, and commissions. In addition, Mitchell spearheaded collaborations with such local partners as Colorado Ballet, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and El Sistema Colorado. The cancellation of the 2020/21 season, due to the COVID-19 health pandemic, halted the progress of other collaborations and recordings previously planned under Mitchell’s direction.
“The Colorado Symphony is grateful for Brett Mitchell's contributions the past five seasons and is excited to enter an unprecedented period of discovery in artistic leadership in the organization's nearly 100-year story,” said Jerome H. Kern, Chief Executive Officer & Board Chair for the Colorado Symphony. “We will look forward to seeing Maestro Mitchell on the podium again in future seasons…”
In The Denver Post’s announcement of his departure, critic-at-large John Wenzel writes that “Mitchell has been a bright and engaging presence over the years, delving into the history of certain well-worn pieces while leading expert renditions of them.”
Video: Cleveland Orchestra musicians join Brett Mitchell for 80th-anniversary performance of Copland's 'Quiet City'
Robert Walters (English horn), Brett Mitchell (piano), and Michael Sachs (trumpet) perform Aaron Copland’s Quiet City.
DENVER — Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs and solo English horn Robert Walters join Brett Mitchell for a long-distance performance of Aaron Copland's Quiet City, recorded to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the piece's premiere on January 28, 1941.
Mr. Mitchell worked with Mr. Sachs and Mr. Walters from 2013 to 2017 while serving on the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra, where Mr. Sachs has been principal trumpet since 1988 and Mr. Walters has been solo English horn since 2004.
Mr. Mitchell recorded his portion of this video in Denver, Colorado, on January 8. Mr. Walters and Mr. Sachs recorded their portions in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 15 and 19, respectively.
Enjoy the complete performance below, or watch on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
New Holiday Music: ‘Brett Mitchell: Home for the Holidays’
Published December 15, 2020 Updated December 24, 2020
DENVER — In lieu of live performances this holiday season, Brett Mitchell has returned to the piano to release Brett Mitchell: Home for the Holidays, a playlist of all-new videos celebrating the season on his YouTube channel.
Christmas with the Mitchells
Mr. Mitchell collaborates with his wife, soprano Angela Mitchell, on a new, half-hour holiday special, Christmas with the Mitchells. Filmed in the living room of their home in the foothills outside Denver, the Mitchells share some of their favorite holiday music, including “The Christmas Song,” “My Favorite Things,” “Grown-Up Christmas List,” “O Holy Night,” “The First Noel,” “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (sneak peek), and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Watch the trailer, and view the complete special below.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Mr. Mitchell has also recorded half a dozen selections from Vince Guaraldi’s classic score for the 1965 Peanuts animated television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Happy 250th Birthday, Beethoven!
DENVER — To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven on December 16, 1770, Brett Mitchell plays “Happy Birthday” in the style of “Für Elise,” one of the variations from Leonid Hambro's Happy Birthday, Dear Ludwig.
View the complete performance on YouTube, or watch on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Video: Brett Mitchell plays jazz
Brett Mitchell during a recording session at home in Colorado in December 2020
Published September 15, 2020 Updated December 6, 2020
DENVER — Returning to one of his first musical loves, Brett Mitchell has released several new videos of solo piano arrangements by jazz greats Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, George Shearing, and Vince Guaraldi, recorded at home in summer and fall 2020.
For more information, please visit the Brett Mitchell Plays Jazz playlist on YouTube.