NEWS
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Welcomes New Music Director with Mozart’s Jupiter and Price Concerto’
Brett Mitchell to lead program featuring 2024 Grammy winner Montgomery's 'Starburst' in January performances (Photo credit: Roger Mastroianni)
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s third subscription weekend as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
The Pasadena Symphony will present its [third weekend of] concerts under newly appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, featuring Mozart’s final symphony alongside works by Florence Price and Jessie Montgomery, at the Ambassador Auditorium.
Mitchell, who was named to the position in March 2024, will conduct two performances on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., marking the beginning of his five-year term with the orchestra.
The program opens with “Starburst” by Jessie Montgomery, a 2024 Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator whose music has been praised by The Washington Post as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life.”
Montgomery, recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation, creates music that interweaves classical traditions with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice.
Acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan, described by The New York Times as “one of the most admired pianists of his generation,” will perform Florence Price’s soul-stirring Concerto for Piano in One Movement.
The New Yorker has praised Barnatan’s “uncommon sensitivity,” while Le Figaro celebrated his “impeccable musicality and phrasing.” The Evening Standard characterized him as “a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative.”
Mitchell, who also serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival, has developed a reputation for presenting engaging, in-depth explorations of thoughtfully curated programs.
The performances will conclude with Mozart’s incomparable Symphony No. 41, known as the “Jupiter” symphony, completing a program that promises pure exhilaration in heralding the New Year.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘New Conductor Reimagines Pasadena’s Beloved Holiday Concert While Preserving Cherished Traditions’
Brett Mitchell will lead three performances of the Pasadena Symphony’s annual Holiday Candlelight concert at All Saints Church on Dec. 13 and 14.
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming holiday concerts with the Pasadena Symphony:
In his inaugural year as Music Director of Pasadena Symphony, Brett Mitchell is reshaping one of Southern California’s most anticipated holiday events by blending reverence for tradition with fresh artistic vision.
The Symphony’s annual Holiday Candlelight Concert, scheduled for three performances on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13 and 14, will transform the historic All Saints Church Pasadena into an intimate musical sanctuary.
“Ambience is everything, so being in this space really transports both the audience and all of us onstage to another place and time,” Mitchell said of the cherished venue.
The architectural constraints of All Saints Church have shaped Mitchell’s approach to the performances, leading him to adapt the orchestra size for the sacred space’s unique acoustics.
“Big and bombastic is just not a thing we can do with this size of orchestra in this space, so it forces us to become a bit more intimate, which is actually a really lovely way to bring the audience into us,” Mitchell explained.
The program weaves together traditional favorites like “Hallelujah Chorus” and “Sleigh Ride” with three world premiere arrangements by Matthew Jackfert, demonstrating Mitchell’s balance of innovation and tradition.
“Part of the joy for so many of us is also discovering new arrangements of carols we all know and love, so I’m really excited that we’ll be presenting the world premieres of three new arrangements,” Mitchell said.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Cover Story: ‘New Beginnings: Pasadena Symphony launches 97th season’
PASADENA — Pasadena Weekly has published an extensive interview and profile of Brett Mitchell as he continues in his first season as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
New Pasadena Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell is fully aware that many people are exposed to classical music through cartoons or film. Whether it’s Bugs Bunny’s “Rabbit of Seville” or “What’s Opera Doc?” or “The Emperor’s Theme,” the songs resonate still.
That’s what drew him in as well.
“The first orchestra music I ever heard was the music that was coming through our TV set speakers,” he said. “When we got to see a movie, it was the music coming out of the speaker. It really was a gateway to classical music.”
“When I grew up in 1979, I grew up with ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Superman.’ I got my undergrad in composition because I wanted to write film music. I moved to conducting because I have the utmost respect for musicians. They were a formative part of my childhood. The opportunity to make music with them is truly a genuine treat.”
Mitchell continues his debut season with a program comprising four works with distinctive and colorful themes that play off Southern California’s adjacency to the Pacific Ocean and the tech industry.
The “Rhapsody in Blue” performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16. Mitchell opens the program with Mason Bates’ computer motherboard-inspired “Sea-Blue Circuitry,” an all-acoustic work.
“The grooves of ‘Sea-Blue Circuitry’ hiccup from measure to measure as rapidly as data quietly flashing on the silicon innards of a computer, yet the piece is entirely unplugged. It explores ways of recreating the precision of electronica through the instruments alone.”
For the next piece, featured guest pianist Stewart Goodyear joins Mitchell and the orchestra to interpret George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue,” as part of the 2024 global celebration of the work’s centenary.
Mitchell is thrilled in his position. He said he feels it was made for him — but he doesn’t take it for granted.
“Any job is great,” he said. “We’re all happy to have any job in 2024. In addition to having the utmost respect for the orchestra, we hit it off right away. We had great chemistry. I equate it to dating: it takes the right guy and the right girl. The lack of chemistry is not indicative of the orchestra.”
He also has served as artistic director and conductor of Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival since August 2022.
From 2017 to 2021, Mitchell served as music director of the Colorado Symphony in Denver; he previously served as music director designate during the 2016-17 season.
During his 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 local partners as Colorado Ballet, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and El Sistema Colorado.
From 2013 to 2017, Mitchell served on the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra. He joined the orchestra as assistant conductor in 2013, and was promoted to associate conductor in 2015, becoming the first person to hold that title in over three decades and only the fifth in the orchestra’s 100-year history. In these roles, he led the orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, and on tour.
From 2007 to 2011, Mitchell led over 100 performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He also held Assistant Conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur from 2006 to 2009, and the Castleton Festival, where he worked under Lorin Maazel in 2009 and 2010.
In 2015, Mitchell completed a highly successful five-year appointment as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, where an increased focus on locally relevant programming and community collaborations resulted in record attendance throughout his tenure.
In addition to his work with professional orchestras, Mitchell is also well known for his affinity for working with and mentoring young musicians aspiring to be professional orchestral players.
His tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2017 was highly praised and included a four-city tour of China in June 2015, marking the orchestra’s second international tour and its first to Asia. Mitchell is regularly invited to work with the talented young musicians at this country’s high-level training programs, such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, the National Repertory Orchestra, Texas Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has also served on the faculties of the schools of music at Northern Illinois University (2005-07), the University of Houston (2012-13) and the University of Denver (2019). During the 2022-23 academic year, Mitchell will again serve as adjunct professor of music at the University of Denver, acting as interim director of orchestras and professor of conducting.
Born in Seattle in 1979, Mitchell earned degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014. He also studied with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institut and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship in 2008. Mitchell was also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship from 2007 to 2010.
To read the complete story, please click here, or read the full digital edition here.
Review: ‘Brett Mitchell makes his mark: a fresh take on Mahler at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium’
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Seen and Heard International has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
The Pasadena Symphony’s new music director, Brett Mitchell, used an edition of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 that, while controversial, brought with it a breath of fresh air. Ambassador Auditorium, with its splendid acoustics and embraceable seating, affirmed its standing as perhaps the best orchestral hall in town.
The program began with Peter Boyer’s New Beginnings, featuring brass fanfares and driving rhythms with a lyrical middle section that suggested Copland’s American-style melodies. It is richly orchestrated and makes the instruments shine. No wonder it has been performed more than 25 times. In fact, this was Mitchell’s third performance of the piece, following earlier appearances with the Houston Symphony and Colorado Symphony, and the playing had the audience on the edge of their seats.
The soloist was violinist Akiko Suwanai, who won the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. She swept through Korngold’s Concerto as so many do – it is meant to be swept through – balancing Hollywood glamour with refined elegance. Her silvery tone in the rhapsodic slow movement and graceful handling of the finale’s pyrotechnics brought out the work’s lyrical soul rather than just its surface, Tinseltown brilliance.
The tone for Mahler’s First Symphony was set by the precision of the gurgling clarinets, the charming and natural ebb and flow of the dialogue between the offstage horns and the trumpets, and the lovely understated cello portamenti. It was light-hearted, like a Haydn symphony. The Ländler swing in the second movement was just right and resisted the temptation to make parts of the Trio into a clog dance. The oboe and flute solos in the Trio and throughout were exquisite, lovely in tone and alive with nuance and color.
The controversy is whether the famous funeral march opening of the third movement should be played as a striking, surreal solo by a single double bass (as is traditional), or more smoothly by the entire bass section in unison. While historical evidence from Mahler’s time definitively favors the solo bass interpretation, the 1992 Critical Edition argued for the full section based on score analysis. And that is the interpretation Mitchell played.
The result was more like Schubert than Kurt Weill, perfectly aligned with Mitchell’s more human-scaled, less titanic overall concept. The interpretation revealed layers of chamber music-like intimacy, with wonderful woodwind solos floating above crystalline textures, and trumpet work that managed to be both brilliant and beautifully integrated. The strings, rather than overwhelming with sheer power, created a mesmerizing transparency; the first violins, in particular, brought an otherworldly radiance to the great themes. The final movement built with inexorable momentum to a conclusion that was both musically thrilling and emotionally cathartic. For Mitchell, it was a remarkably assured debut that suggests exciting times ahead for the Pasadena Symphony.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Review: ‘Mitchell Had the Pasadena Symphony Playing at Their Finest’
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Culture Spot LA has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
At 2 and 8 p.m. at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the Pasadena Symphony gave its inaugural concert of the 2024/25 season under the direction of its new music director, Brett Mitchell. The program featured New Beginnings by Altadena composer Peter Boyer, the Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 by Eric Wolfgang Korngold with violinist Akiko Suwanai, and the Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“Titan”) by Gustav Mahler. The Pasadena Symphony…showed why they are one of the top regional orchestras in the Southland.
The first piece on the program, New Beginnings, by local composer Peter Boyer was, as Music Director Mitchell stated in his comments, extremely apropos. Not only was this the inaugural concert by the PSO in their 2024/25 season, but it was the first being led by newly appointed Music Director Mitchell. So, it was new beginnings all around. New Beginnings is an uplifting single-movement work with hints of John Williams that utilizes a large orchestra and makes the most of the brass sections. It contains rhythmic sequences that are hard not to tap your foot to, and it was the perfect work to introduce the new season and the new conductor.
And, speaking of film scores, the first half of the concert concluded with the equally uplifting and melodic violin concerto by Korngold. Korngold, who was a child prodigy in his native Vienna, Austria, eventually came to Los Angeles where he composed film scores in addition to classical music. The Violin Concerto contains melodies from four of his film scores woven together in a beautiful and thrilling late romantic work for violin and orchestra. Suwanai more than handled the difficult solo part. Her playing was understated but both technically and tonally top-notch. Mitchell did a fine job of accompanying her while never letting the orchestra overwhelm.
The concert concluded with Mahler’s First Symphony, which is subtitled “The Titan.” However, many of Mahler’s subsequent symphonies were actually more titan if by that we mean large-scale and lengthy. This symphony really shows off all the sections of the orchestra, but especially the horn section. The PSO horns were more than up to the task and really knocked the ball out of the park. Mitchell showed why he was selected as the PSO’s new music director. He very capably served up an exciting rendition of the Mahler First and had the orchestra playing at their finest.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Review: A Mahler of ‘Unfailing Mastery’ in Pasadena
Brett Mitchell leads the Pasadena Symphony in his inaugural performances as Music Director at the Ambassador Auditorium on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Karen Tapia)
PASADENA — Classical Voice has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s inaugural program as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
At 2pm Saturday, October 26, the Pasadena Symphony opened its 97th season at the Ambassador Auditorium… The opening concert, conducted by Brett Mitchell, the orchestra’s new music director, was a strong one: Mahler’s ‘titanic’ Symphony No. 1 and two works paying tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The first work, New Beginnings, by Pasadena-area composer/Hollywood orchestrator Peter Boyer, features a brass fanfare and folksy tunefulness (but no direct quoting of folksong) not unlike many works of Aaron Copland (his second symphony, for example). The musicians, many of whom also work in Hollywood recording studios, played with brilliance and great enthusiasm.
[Erich] Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto followed. The music contains echoes of many of Korngold’s Golden Age Hollywood film scores (Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Robin Hood) but without directly quoting them. Under maestro Mitchell’s baton, the seafaring first-movement, the chivalric romance in the second, and the swashbuckling finale all came across brilliantly in lush, orchestral Technicolor…
With unfailing mastery, Mitchell conducted Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”) and took us into a bright, lyrical Wunderhorn world. The music flowed through him with all its emotion, excitement, precision and attention to passing details and the larger form. The orchestral playing was superb, notably in the expressive string portamento that is an essential part of Mahler’s music.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Charts New Course With Hollywood-Classical Fusion’
At left, newly named Pasadena Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell [photo by Tim Sullens]. At right, Aimée Kreston, Pasadena Symphony Concertmaster [photo courtesy of Pasadena Symphony]
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming tenure as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Music Director Brett Mitchell brings Symphony’s film scoring heritage to forefront through innovative programming
The Pasadena Symphony is embarking on an innovative new programming direction that celebrates its unique connection to Hollywood film scoring, as exemplified by their upcoming performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto this weekend.
The strategic shift, under newly appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, aims to highlight the orchestra’s distinctive makeup of musicians who regularly perform soundtracks for major motion pictures and animated films.
“The Pasadena Symphony is almost entirely made up of people who play the music for the movies that you all listen to,” explains Concertmaster Aimée Kreston, who has served with the orchestra since 2000. “We are the ones who actually are playing the soundtracks in all the great movies.”
This dual identity sets the Pasadena Symphony apart from other major orchestras.
“That’s not the case of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony or the New York Philharmonic,” Kreston notes.
The orchestra’s members can be heard in “every Pixar movie, every blockbuster,” contributing to some of Hollywood’s most notable soundtracks.
Mitchell’s programming strategy includes works by composers who bridge the classical and film music worlds. Beyond Korngold, who was himself a film composer, the orchestra will feature pieces by Peter Boyer, another established figure in both realms.
“I think it’s long overdue that we make that clear and that we bring that out, that that’s a core part of our identity,” says Kreston of the orchestra’s Hollywood connections.
The new direction comes following what Kreston describes as “a conductor search for several years, and it’s been going on since the Covid epidemic.”
Beyond its film music identity, the Pasadena Symphony maintains a robust presence in the community through “eleven youth ensembles,” educational programs, and “the beautiful summer Pops series out at the Arboretum.”
As Kreston notes, hundreds of young people participate in their youth orchestras, while the organization continues to bring classical music to Pasadena audiences through both its regular season and summer Pops series.
The orchestra’s evolution under Mitchell’s leadership represents a new chapter for the Pasadena Symphony.
The Pasadena Symphony performs at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at Ambassador Auditorium. Music Director Brett Mitchell conducts violinist Akiko Suwanai in a program featuring Peter Boyer’s “New Beginnings,” Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.”
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Launches 2024-25 Season with Mahler’s Monumental “Titan” Symphony No. 1’
PASADENA — Discover Los Angeles has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming first concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Pasadena Symphony launches its 2024-25 season and a new era under Music Director Brett Mitchell – only the sixth music director to lead the orchestra since it was founded in 1928 – with a program filled with symbolism on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 2 pm and 8 pm, at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium. Mitchell conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” Korgold’s Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Akiko Suwanai, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and New Beginnings by Peter Boyer. The monumental program, deeply rooted in Pasadena, simultaneously looks both forward and back while also reflecting the orchestra members’ strong ties to the film and television recording industry. This marks the acclaimed orchestra’s 97th season.
Mitchell commences his tenure with New Beginnings, a dazzlingly celebratory fanfare by Boyer, a prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated composer based in Altadena who served as Pasadena Symphony’s 2012-13 Composer in Residence and has contributed orchestrations to more than 35 film scores. One of the composer’s earliest orchestral commissions, New Beginnings has been heard from Carnegie Hall to the Kansas prairie and adapted for background music on CBS This Morning. It has been hailed as “a well-crafted piece that mixes blazing fanfare-like material with a sweet secondary tune that could have come from the pen of Aaron Copland” (The Providence Journal).
Also embracing the orchestra’s cinematic connections and musical virtuosity, Suwanai, hailed for her “round, beautiful sound and perfect technique” (Opus Magazine), performs the Violin Concerto by Korngold, a masterful composer who brilliantly straddled both Hollywood and the rigorous Viennese Classical musical tradition from which he emerged. Referred to as a “Hollywood Concerto,” the beloved Violin Concerto integrates themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades. In 2019, Mitchell conducted the work to great critical acclaim with Suwanai and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain.
Mitchell caps his first program as music director of the Pasadena Symphony with Mahler’s landmark Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces. The symphonic poem melds traditional and modernist musical ideas while shifting moods from joy and exuberance to introspection and melancholy. NPR states, “It's hard to resist the pull of a piece that begins like Mahler's First: The strings play a single note spread out over seven octaves."
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Begins Its 2024–25 Season With Its New Music Director, Brett Mitchell’
PASADENA — Colorado Boulevard has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming inaugural concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Mitchell will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Korgold’s Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Akiko Suwanai, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and “New Beginnings” by Peter Boyer. The program, deeply rooted in Pasadena, reflects the orchestra members’ strong ties to the film and television recording industry. This marks the acclaimed orchestra’s 97th season… and the conductor’s first season with them.
Brett Mitchell commences his tenure appropriately with New Beginnings, a celebratory fanfare by Peter Boyer, a prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated composer based in Altadena. New Beginnings has been heard from Carnegie Hall to the Kansas prairie and was adapted for background music on CBS This Morning.
Also embracing the orchestra’s cinematic connections and musical virtuosity, Suwanai, performs the Violin Concerto by Korngold. Referred to as a “Hollywood Concerto,” the beloved Violin Concerto integrates themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades.
Mitchell caps his first program as music director of the Pasadena Symphony with Mahler’s landmark Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces.
Mitchell says, “I’m truly thrilled that the Pasadena Symphony’s season launch and my debut as music director is finally here! What better way to connect with the Pasadena community than by opening my tenure with the brilliant music of a world-renowned composer from right up the road in Altadena?”
This is the first of six distinctive programs this season, each of which will spotlight the critically acclaimed orchestra’s artistry, deep community roots, and unwavering commitment to championing both emerging and established composers. Mitchell has been hailed for his “deftly rendered” performances (The Plain Dealer) and “engaging, in-depth explorations of thoughtfully curated programs” (Cascade A&E). Mitchell’s five-year tenure with the Pasadena Symphony began on April 1, 2024.
Tickets include admission to a pre-concert conversation held one hour prior to the concert. KUSC Classical California’s Brian Lauritzen will interview the Pasadena Symphony’s new Music Director, Brett Mitchell, offering a deep and entertaining dive into the program.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Mahler’s “Titan” Launches New Era for Pasadena Symphony Under Baton of Brett Mitchell’
PASADENA — Pasadena Now has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming inaugural concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Incoming Music Director Brett Mitchell lays out his vision of orchestral music accessible to all
The Pasadena Symphony will open its 2024-25 season on October 26 at Ambassador Auditorium with a landmark performance of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, marking the debut of new Music Director Brett Mitchell. The ambitious program signals Mitchell’s vision to broaden the orchestra’s appeal while honoring classical traditions.
“My fundamental philosophy of symphonic music is that it really is for everybody,” Mitchell said in a recent interview. “My ultimate idea is that there shouldn’t be any kind of music you couldn’t hear by coming to the Pasadena Symphony.”
The 45-year-old Mitchell was appointed to lead the Pasadena Symphony as it approaches its centennial.
He plans to shape the orchestra’s sound and repertoire through diverse programming that balances classical masterpieces with contemporary works.
The choice of Mahler’s First Symphony, nicknamed “Titan,” for Mitchell’s inaugural concert holds deep personal significance.
“I was 16 years old when I first heard this music,” Mitchell recalled. “It is not too much to say that moment changed my life.”
Mitchell’s journey to classical music was unconventional. Growing up in Seattle during the 1990s, he was immersed in the grunge scene before discovering Beethoven.
In fact, this background informs his current approach to programming: “very diverse, very inclusive” in terms of the composers and styles that are represented.
“If all we’re doing is programming one kind of music, we may only attract one kind of audience,” Mitchell explained. “Whereas if we have music by, let’s say, an African-American woman on a particular program, it becomes much easier for people to feel welcome in the hall.”
Mitchell’s background in composition — he holds an undergraduate degree in the field — influences his support for contemporary composers, especially those from underrepresented communities.
He sees classical music as a continuum, aiming to create “conversations across the centuries” in his programming.
Beyond programming, Mitchell emphasized community engagement as his key priority. He aims to make the orchestra more accessible through educational outreach, particularly to young people.
“It is more incumbent upon nonprofits and arts organizations like ours to step in,” he said, by way of referring to declining arts education funding in schools.
Mitchell brings significant experience in youth education having worked with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. He plans to be involved with the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra and to visit schools, working directly with young musicians.
To attract new audiences, Mitchell plans, in part, to incorporate technology and innovative performance formats.
“We have to do that in the 21st century,” he said. “There are so many options now for entertainment.”
He hinted this could include adding visual elements to some performances.
Mitchell’s long-term vision is for the Pasadena Symphony to become “a nexus for all of the arts in Pasadena,” potentially incorporating dance, visual art, and even popular music into performances. He sees this artistic growth as interconnected with audience engagement and financial stability.
The conductor credits two principal mentors for shaping his approach: Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel, both former music directors of the New York Philharmonic.
“I can’t even imagine my career without the influence of both of those men,” Mitchell said.
The October 26 concerts will take place at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Ambassador Auditorium. In addition to Mahler’s First Symphony, the program will feature New Beginnings by local composer Peter Boyer of Altadena and International Tchaikovsky Competition winner Akiko Suwanai performing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto.
“My goodness, a new era has arrived!” Mitchell said of the upcoming season.
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Preview: ‘Pasadena Symphony Launches 97th Season with Debut of New Music Director Brett Mitchell’
Brett Mitchell will lead his opening concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony on Saturday, October 26 at the Ambassador Auditorium.
PASADENA — Broadway World has published a preview of the inaugural program of Brett Mitchell’s tenure as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony:
Pasadena Symphony launches its 2024-25 season and a new era under Music Director Brett Mitchell – only the sixth music director to lead the orchestra since it was founded in 1928 – with a program filled with symbolism on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 2 pm and 8 pm, at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium.
Mitchell conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” Korgold's Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Akiko Suwanai, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and New Beginnings by Peter Boyer.
The monumental program, deeply rooted in Pasadena, simultaneously looks both forward and back while also reflecting the orchestra members' strong ties to the film and television recording industry. This marks the acclaimed orchestra's 97th season.
Mitchell commences his tenure with New Beginnings, a dazzlingly celebratory fanfare by Boyer, a prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated composer based in Altadena who served as Pasadena Symphony's 2012-13 Composer in Residence and has contributed orchestrations to more than 35 film scores. One of the composer's earliest orchestral commissions, New Beginnings has been heard from Carnegie Hall to the Kansas prairie and adapted for background music on CBS This Morning.
Also embracing the orchestra's cinematic connections and musical virtuosity, Suwanai, hailed for her “round, beautiful sound and perfect technique” (Opus Magazine), performs the Violin Concerto by Korngold, a masterful composer who brilliantly straddled both Hollywood and the rigorous Viennese Classical musical tradition from which he emerged. Referred to as a “Hollywood Concerto,” the beloved Violin Concerto integrates themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades. In 2019, Mitchell conducted the work to great critical acclaim with Suwanai and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain.
Mitchell caps his first program as music director of the Pasadena Symphony with Mahler's landmark Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces. The symphonic poem melds traditional and modernist musical ideas while shifting moods from joy and exuberance to introspection and melancholy. NPR states, “It's hard to resist the pull of a piece that begins like Mahler's First: The strings play a single note spread out over seven octaves."
Says Mitchell, “I'm truly thrilled that the Pasadena Symphony's season launch and my debut as music director is finally here! What better way to connect with the Pasadena community than by opening my tenure with the brilliant music of a world-renowned composer from right up the road in Altadena? I am proud to kick off my first subscription series with the orchestra with Peter Boyer's New Beginnings and a masterpiece by of one of Hollywood's most legendary composers: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's sumptuous Violin Concerto, performed by the exquisite Akiko Suwanai. At the heart of my relationship with the Pasadena Symphony is, of course, my joyful collaboration with our masterful musicians. I'm very excited their talent will be on display front and center on one of the greatest orchestral showpieces of all time: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1, ‘Titan.' This promises to be an inspirational, stimulating start to our time together, and I can't wait to share it with you all!”
Pasadena Symphony President & CEO Andrew Brown states, “Pasadena Symphony's season-opening program on October 26th is a major milestone in the orchestra's history as we officially welcome to the podium Brett Mitchell as our stellar new music director. The launch of Brett's musical leadership marks the beginning of a significant new era of exciting musical possibilities for the acclaimed orchestra. We look forward to all that Brett will bring to the Pasadena Symphony, which has been a beloved and celebrated part of the community's cultural landscape since its inception in 1928, entertaining, inspiring, and captivating generations of audiences with its musical virtuosity.”
This is the first of six distinctive programs Mitchell will lead this season, all of which will spotlight the critically acclaimed orchestra's artistry, deep community roots, and unwavering commitment to championing emerging and established composers.
Preview: ‘Sunriver Music Festival to have doubly classical year in Central Oregon’
Brett Mitchell will lead the Sunriver Music Festival’s 2024 season in Central Oregon from August 10 to 23. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
BEND, Ore. — The Bulletin (Bend) has published a preview of the Sunriver Music Festival’s 2024 season, Brett Mitchell’s third as Artistic Director & Conductor:
Earth. Fire. Water. Air. These are the four classical elements the ancient Greeks used to explain the nature of matter.
Sunriver Music Festival, Central Oregon’s soon-to-return summer classical music series, returns this week with four classical concerts. Maestro Brett Mitchell and the Sunriver Music Festival team struck thematic gold this year, tying each of the year’s four concerts to one of those classical elements. It starts with Sunday’s opening night concert at the Tower Theatre in Bend, works inspired by or pertaining to Earth on the opening night concert Sunday at the Tower Theatre in Bend, the first of a total of four festival concerts that will be held at the downtown Bend theater.
On Aug. 18, the Festival Orchestra will present the second of the elementally themed concerts, “Water,” also the fourth and final of the Tower concerts, before moving back to its longtime home, the Sunriver Resort Great Hall, for “Fire” (Aug. 21), featuring pianist Joyce Yang, followed by the annual solo concert on Aug. 22, on which renowned violinist and bluegrass fiddler Tessa Lark will perform. Lark returns the following evening for the final of this year’s concerts, “Air.”
Four score
Before they tackle the second elemental concert, however, Mitchell and the Festival Orchestra will present the ever-popular Pops Concert, “A Tribute to Broadway & Film Music,” on Tuesday at the Tower.
This year’s Pops Concert features a celebration of big anniversaries, which includes music from films such as 60-year-old “My Fair Lady” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and younger fare such as 30-year-old “Forrest Gump,” Mitchell said.
“You kind of see where I’m going with it. All of these pieces are on this Pops program not just because they’re fun pieces that I think work together, but it’s a really nice way to commemorate the passage of time,” Mitchell said. “All of the pieces premiered or were released in ‘4’ years — 1944, 1964, 2004, that kind of thing.”
A fire idea
The idea for the season to have the “Classical Elements” theme came from the festival’s board and Meagan Iverson, SRMF executive director, Mitchell said.
“There’s no reason that the public would know this, but we have our final concert of every season on whatever night that is, and then literally the very next morning, the board and I sit down for like an hour and a half and we just do a debrief,” Mitchell said. They discuss what worked, what they’d bring back and what could be improved upon. One of those things was to have a theme that runs like connective tissue throughout the festival.
From the brainstorm session, “I took it and ran with it. I thought, ‘We have four classical concerts, and there are four classical elements,’” Mitchell said, adding with a laugh, “Apparently, now there’s five, but we don’t talk about that, ‘cause that screws up my season.” (To save you a Google trip: It’s “aether,” aka “quintessence.”)
Evocative tunes
Finding compositions that fit each evening’s theme was not exactly a problem.
“The trouble was not finding pieces; the trouble was ‘Of all of these pieces, what are we going to do?’” Mitchell said.
“Because composers have been so drawn to creating what we would call programmatic pieces — pieces inspired by things outside the music itself. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is not a programmatic piece; it’s just a piece of music. But Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, which we’re doing on opening night this year, is program music,” he said. “It’s music that was specifically designed to evoke Beethoven’s love of nature, which seemed a great way to open the whole festival.”
That evening’s concert also features Charles Ives’ Variations on “America” and a celebration of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” featuring the talents of Orion Weiss, described as a “brilliant pianist” by The New York Times.
Mitchell points to how the second classical concert’s music evokes the evening’s “Water” theme. It starts with Johann Strauss’ “The Blue Danube,” followed by Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral,” “which every elementary pianist tries to play,” he said. They’re followed by George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music Suite” and Robert Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony.
“We really leaned into all of those various composers, really trying to be evocative,” he said.
Other program notes
Mitchell and Iverson are enthused about having violinist Lark on hand this season. In addition to her solo program on Aug. 22, Lark will perform Michael Torke’s “Sky” concerto with the orchestra on Aug. 23’s “Air” concert.
“That was literally written for her and to feature her unique skill set, which is bluegrass and classical,” Iverson said. “She’s renowned in bluegrass circles worldwide, in addition to being an acclaimed classical violinist.”
“The particularly cool thing about this piece,” Mitchell said, “is it absolutely takes someone with classical chops to be able to play this piece, but it also takes somebody with a deep understanding of bluegrass music to be able to.”
The family-style matinee Discover the Symphony concert at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, is a one-hour, kid-friendly concert fit for anyone looking to dip a toe in classical waters. The afternoon will also feature an instrument petting zoo, affording a hands-on approach, prior to the concert.
“This is a perfect concert for folks that have never been to a classical music concert to go to first,” Mitchell said. “I would call it like a sample platter of everything else that’s on the rest of the season, but if you’re not down to sit through a whole Beethoven symphony, you can sit through a movement of a Beethoven symphony.”
Mitchell recently signed on for another four years as conductor of Sunriver Music Festival, which will take him through 2028. Oregon holds a special place in the hearts of Mitchell, who spent summers with his grandparents in Grants Pass as a boy, and his family, with whom he lives in Colorado.
“It’s funny, you know. It’s like the position is with the festival, but I feel so much a part of the community,” he said. “It speaks well of Sunriver, and just Central Oregon generally speaking, that we’ve all felt so welcome.”
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Review: ‘Béla Fleck and Cleveland Orchestra wow Blossom Music Center with Rhapsody in Blue’
Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — Cleveland.com has published a review of Brett Mitchell’s recent performance with The Cleveland Orchestra, opening the classical series of the 2024 Blossom Music Festival:
Brett Mitchell and Béla Fleck backstage at Severance Music Center
Appearing with the Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday evening July 6, Béla Fleck surprised the Blossom Music Center crowd not so much by the level of his playing — virtuosic as always — but by how well he adapted the solo piano part for the banjo in his transcription of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
His reworkings succeeded so well that the piece seemed not just suitable for the banjo but actually conceived for it.
With a reputation that preceded him — his 18 Grammys acknowledge his mastery of every genre from bluegrass to classical —the audience warmed to Fleck immediately and continued to lavish their attention on his playing, eager to hear what magic might happen next.
Under the direction of Brett Mitchell, the Orchestra too seemed eager, playing at lower volumes than usual to balance the soloist. Wind soloists were excellent, especially Daniel McKelway, whose clarinet released a glorious opening skyward glissando, and Michael Sachs, who offered 1920s-style jazz from his muted trumpet. Strings generated an arrestingly warm sound, particularly in the famous orchestral tutti after the first cadenza — the passage used in commercials by a certain airline….
Mitchell opened the program with Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On The Town, a 1944 musical about a trio of sailors getting to spend a day of shore leave in New York City. Although pit and jazz bands have the edge over classical orchestras when it comes to Broadway jazz, The Clevelanders managed to loosen up in spite of their habits of exactitude.
All three selections were sexy and fun, but the final Episode, Times Square: 1944, fairly teetered on debauchery. Special mention again goes to McKelway, who caroused on both the E-flat and B-flat clarinet. Trombonist [Shachar Israel] and the alto sax [Gabriel Piqué] suggested alarming degrees of impropriety.
Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal, an eight-minute theater piece teeming with statements both mercurial and tender, unlocked the second half. It spotlighted lovely and meticulous solo playing from the woodwinds.
In William Grant Still’s 1931 Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American,” blues both opens and permeates the work, calling to mind George Gershwin but without the heat (the two composers knew each other’s work).
Although jazz had been unleashed in America by 1931, Still’s symphony seems European: rhythms are right-angled, syncopations are aligned with downbeats, and blues sections are more calculated than carefree. But Mitchell summoned a great deal of beauty and nobility from the symphony’s events.
To read the complete review, please click here.
Preview: ‘Conductor Brett Mitchell returns to Blossom Music Center’
Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra’s opening classical performance of the 2024 Blossom Music Festival on Saturday, July 6. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND - Cleveland Classical has published a preview of Brett Mitchell’s upcoming season-opening classical performance with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center:
Photo by Roger Mastroianni
“To say that once again being asked to conduct The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom is an honor would be a gross understatement,” Brett Mitchell said during a telephone interview. “I am not often at a loss for words, but there really aren’t any to describe how much it means to me.”
On Saturday, July 6 at 7:00 pm Mitchell will return to the Blossom podium to lead The Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American,” and Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal. The program also includes George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Béla Fleck’s transcription for banjo and orchestra with Fleck as soloist. Tickets are available online.
Mitchell said he loves Rhapsody in Blue. But when the Orchestra told him that they didn’t want the symphonic version that is often played by orchestras he thought they might be considering the original Paul Whiteman jazz band version. “It turned out that what they wanted was Béla Fleck’s transcription where he plays the piano part on the banjo.”
The conductor said that he’s delighted to have the work on the program and to once again work with Fleck. “It’s wonderful because during my first season with the Colorado Symphony, Béla came and we did his third banjo concerto. So he and I have worked together before — and we hit it off. He’s an amazing musician. It’s funny, because he’s won all these GRAMMYs and the GRAMMYs operate by categorizing folks. Yet Béla has made a name for himself by thinking outside the box — or by not even acknowledging the box, just by loving great music and approaching it in the way that only he can.”
Mitchell also thinks that transcribing a piano work for the banjo rather than a single line instrument such as the clarinet or cello makes a lot of sense. “A cello can play chords here and there, but it is not percussive in the way that the piano is. The attack of a piano note can be quite direct, and no instrument does direct better than a banjo. It’s because of the twang of the banjo — the sound it makes when it’s strummed, or when it’s plucked, or when it’s picked — can cut through just about anything. So I think it’s going to be a total trip and I’m just tickled that the audience is going to get to hear it.”
The conductor noted that William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 is a piece that has been on his wish list for over a decade. “So when the Orchestra asked if I would be interested, both of my hands immediately shot up.”
Mitchell pointed out that while 2024 is the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue it is also the 80th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.
“The show opened in 1944, and I think it’s really interesting to hear what jazz on Broadway sounded like in 1924 with Gershwin, and in 1944 with Bernstein. 20 years doesn’t seem like that long a time, but when you listen to both pieces you’d think they were written 50 years apart. The musical growth during the jazz age and the depression, and once the Second World War started the Swing era really took hold with Glenn Miller and the Dorsey brothers — the change is just extraordinary.”
Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal was written in 1931 and was the composer’s first work for full orchestra. “Barber lived from 1910 -1981, which means he was 21 years old when he wrote it, which is just astonishing — he was still studying at Curtis. He wrote it during the summer in Italy, and when he returned to Curtis, he tried to have the piece read by the school orchestra, but the director at the time was none other than Fritz Reiner who said, thanks, but no thanks.”
The work was premiered two years later by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Smallens. “I think it’s ironic when your university orchestra won’t even read your piece, and two years later it’s on a concert program by the Philadelphia Orchestra.”
Saturday’s concert will also be a homecoming for Mitchell, who served on the conducting staff from 2013 to 2017, first as Assistant Conductor then as Associate Conductor. He was Music Director of the Colorado Symphony from 2017 to 2021. In March Mitchell was named Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony, and the Sunriver Music Festival has extended his contract as Artistic Director & Conductor through the 2028 summer season. Still there is a special place in his heart for Cleveland.
“I conducted The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts last year and I think a third of the way through was my 150th performance with that amazing orchestra — which just blows my mind. And the fact that they’ve asked me to return to Blossom is a thrill, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity.”
To read the complete preview, please click here.
Brett Mitchell extends contract as Artistic Director & Conductor of Sunriver Music Festival through 2028
SUNRIVER, Ore. — The Sunriver Music Festival has announced that Brett Mitchell has extended his contract as Artistic Director & Conductor through the 2028 summer season.
From the official press release:
The Sunriver Music Festival Board of Trustees has announced that Artistic Director & Conductor Brett Mitchell’s contract has been extended four years to 2028. The maestro's four-year extension will encompass the Festival's monumental 50th season. In March 2024, Mitchell was named Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony, beginning an initial five-year term with the 2024-25 season. He will work concurrently with the Pasadena Symphony and the Sunriver Music Festival, along with his many prestigious guest conducting roles.
“Maestro Mitchell is an esteemed conductor with a dedication to artistic excellence, creative concert curation, and inspired community engagement, and we are thrilled that his role with the Festival will continue,” said Festival Board President Dr. Ronald Carver.
For more information, please click here.
Pasadena Symphony announces 2024-25 season, Brett Mitchell’s first as Music Director
PASADENA — The Pasadena Symphony has announced its 2024-25 season, Brett Mitchell’s first as Music Director.
From the official press release:
Pasadena Symphony launches a bold new era with the announcement of its 2024-25 season, the first to be programmed and led by recently appointed Music Director Brett Mitchell, who is only the sixth conductor to helm the orchestra since it was founded in 1928. It features six distinctive programs selected by Mitchell to spotlight the critically acclaimed orchestra’s virtuosic artistry, deep community roots, and unwavering commitment to championing emerging and established composers. The programming also reflects the considerable impact many of the orchestra’s gifted musicians have had on the film industry and incorporates some of the musical influences on Mitchell’s own career. Mitchell will conduct all six of the programs during his debut season with the orchestra, which marks Pasadena Symphony’s 97th season.
“I’m particularly pleased during my first season with Pasadena Symphony to explore a wide variety of repertoire that will showcase the breadth and scope of my brilliant colleagues’ musicianship while also featuring an inclusive roster of soloists and composers,” says Mitchell. “My intention is to showcase great music performed by great musicians.”
“I will strive to cover as many bases as I possibly can with each season’s programs. That means we’ll present works from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and contemporary eras as well as a broad range of styles within each of those periods. Some works will be familiar while others lesser known.”
Download the 2024-25 Season Flyer
Pasadena Symphony President & CEO Andrew Brown states, “This is a tremendously exciting time for the Pasadena Symphony as we embark on our next chapter under Brett Mitchell’s artistic leadership. He has crafted a season of incredible music that touches, enthralls, inspires, challenges and intrigues. We can’t wait for audiences to experience all that he brings to the concert hall.”
During Mitchell’s inaugural season, he conducts from the canon of landmark orchestral works Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” a staggering work of tremendous emotional depth for massive forces; Mozart’s masterly final symphony, Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter,” completed just three years before the composer’s death; Prokofiev’s impeccably crafted Classical Symphony; and Beethoven’s cheerful Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” expressing the joy of nature.
Mitchell and the orchestra welcome six distinguished guest artists performing a range of seminal concertos, three of them violinists. Akiko Suwanai, who in 1990, at age 18, became the youngest winner of the violin portion of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, plays Korngold’s Violin Concerto, also known as a “Hollywood Concerto” for integrating themes from films the composer scored during the Golden Age of cinema. It offers a subtle nod to the numerous Pasadena Symphony artists past and present whose work in the film recording industry spans the decades. Stefan Jackiw, a violinist with “talent that’s off the scale” (The Washington Post), performs the sublime Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, “Turkish,” composed by Mozart when he was still a teenager. Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a lush tour-de-force, features William Hagen, a violinist praised for his “glowing tone (and) virtuosic pyrotechnics” (Chicago Classical Review).
Two leading pianists also join Pasadena Symphony: Inon Barnatan, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (The New York Times), presenting Florence Price’s Concerto for Piano in One Movement, and Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, interpreting Gershwin’s iconic jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue as part of the work’s 2024 global centenary celebration. Additionally, Mark Kosower, the eminent Principal Cello of the Cleveland Orchestra, takes the stage for a performance of Dvořák’s beloved Cello Concerto.
Providing further musical texture, Mitchell introduces audiences to a selection of works by composers he calls “near and dear to my heart.” They include former Pasadena Symphony Composer in Residence, prolific film score orchestrator and GRAMMY-nominated Altadena resident Peter Boyer’s dazzling fanfare New Beginnings, which launches the orchestra’s 2024-25 season and aptly signals Mitchell’s first podium appearance as Music Director. Mitchell illuminates Mason Bates’ Sea-Blue Circuitry, mimicking a computer motherboard; and Samuel Jones’ Hymn to the Earth, a suite derived from his larger symphonic work entitled “Roundings: Musings and Meditations on Texas New Deal Murals,” which contemplates Earth’s enduring power; Adolphus Hailstork’s Baroque Suite, filtering his unique compositional voice through a historical musical lens; and 2024 GRAMMY-winning composer Jessie Montgomery’s vivid Starburst.
Mitchell states, “These contemporary works are all part of the great continuum of classical music. The ‘conversations’ that take place between these newer works and the great masterworks of the past—how one work causes us to hear the next work differently—are part of the great joy of being in the concert hall.”
Themes of nature also punctuate the programming this season with Mitchell and the orchestra exploring the classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.
Mitchell explains, “One of the things I’ve always loved about California is the diversity of its nature. There are countless examples of composers writing works inspired by nature, and I’ve selected a handful of favorites to share.” In addition to Beethoven’s sunny “Pastoral” Symphony celebrating the bucolic countryside, and Jones’ homage to our planet, he leads Wagner’s thrilling “Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre, considered the composer’s magnum opus; Debussy’s shimmering La Mer (“The Sea”); and Ravel’s descriptive Une barque sur l’océan (“A boat on the ocean”).
In December, the Pasadena Symphony continues its tradition of presenting its annually sold-out Holiday Candlelight Concert at All Saints Church, with Mitchell conducting timeless seasonal favorites with special guests, including the LA Bronze Handbell Ensemble, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, the Donald Brinegar Singers and JPL Chorus.
Additional Coverage
Colorado Boulevard (5/21): New Music Director Brett Mitchell Is Launching a New Era for Pasadena Symphony
OperaWire (5/22): Pasadena Symphony Unveils 2024-25 Season
Broadway World (5/22): Pasadena Symphony Reveals 2024-25 Season
Los Angeles Times (5/25): Essential Arts
Musical America (5/28): Pasadena Symphony Announces 2024-25 Season, Launching a New Era for the Esteemed Orchestra
Patch (5/28): Pasadena Symphony Announces 2024-25 Season, Launching a New Era for the Esteemed Orchestra
San Francisco Classical Voice (6/1): A New Era at Pasadena Symphony
Brett Mitchell returns to Tulsa Symphony’s 2024-25 classical season
Brett Mitchell will lead a program of Brahms, Ravel, and Bartók with the Tulsa Symphony on October 12, 2024.
TULSA — The Tulsa Symphony has announced that Brett Mitchell will return to lead the second classical subscription concert of their 2024-25 season, leading the following program at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 12, 2024:
BRAHMS - Selections from Hungarian Dances
RAVEL - Rapsodie espagnole
BARTÓK - Concerto for Orchestra
Mr. Mitchell first led the orchestra in March 2023 in a program of Bach, Vaughan Williams, Mahler, and Prokofiev. This performance marks his second engagement with the orchestra.
For more information, please click here.
Feature: ‘Brett Mitchell Is Listening’
PASADENA — Local News Pasadena has published a feature about Brett Mitchell following his appointment as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony. Mr. Mitchell spoke extensively with veteran journalist Victoria Thomas for this piece, excerpted here in part:
Smells like teen spirit
[Mitchell] describes his new role [as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony] this way: “My job is to serve the music, the musicians, and the community.”
A Seattle native who grew up down the street from Kurt Cobain and now a resident of Denver, Colorado, Mitchell grew up loving grunge as well as John Williams’ iconic “Star Wars” and “Superman” scores. He cites Barry Manilow as a musical guilty pleasure “…because Manilow is a consummate entertainer and showman. He genuinely connects with everyone in the audience. It’s real, and the people know it’s real, and my passion is to do the same with classical music as well as other genres,” Desi Arnaz-Copacabana ruffles optional. He recounts an evening in 2018 in Denver’s spectacular open-air Red Rocks amphitheater where he shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, saying, “He held those 9,000 people rapt. They were as attentive and silent 90 minutes into the program as they were 90 seconds in. Don’t ever underestimate the power of music.”
“The great thing about the Pasadena Symphony is that we’re working with the world’s A-grade, first-call studio musicians who can play everything and anything. They’re professional chameleons, so a specific focus of mine is to showcase the breadth of the team,” says Mitchell.
“This is one of the key differences between pop and classical performance. Pop music is the domain of an individual persona. Billy Joel always sounds like Billy Joel and people love the brand. But classical players need to be at ease in many different costumes. Debussy should not sound like Beethoven.”
On the subject of ego, he makes the distinction between hubris and authority. “Yes, it absolutely takes confidence to take the podium and lead. Without ego, we’d never get off the couch, much less get from the couch to the podium. But if a person’s surety arises from some innate sense of superiority or entitlement or ‘deserving to be here,’ there will be problems. In my case, I feel confident because I know I’ve done the work and that I continue to do it with passion and fervor. I am always gobbling up information, and I learn as much or maybe even more than I teach. Doing the work in this sense begins with respect for the audience, as well as the virtuosity of the musicians, and consists essentially of listening – active listening – seeing how the artists and the audience respond to certain things.”
So Wolfie, Ludvig Van and Antonio V. walk into a bar…
As he moves into position to lead the 2024-2025 season, Mitchell recounts receiving invaluable advice from none other than Ara Guzelimian, current Artistic Director of the Ojai Music Festival and former Dean and Provost of The Julliard School, who previously served as Artistic Advisor and Senior Director for Carnegie Hall.
“On the subject of programming and how to build a compelling program that will bring the folks to the hall, Ara told me to picture three pieces of music as entities sidling up to a bar. Would the three have anything to say to each other? If the pieces are too similar, there isn’t much excitement, although you’d have something very harmonious. If the pieces are radically different, that can be interesting, but it might be difficult to find common ground.” For the approaching season, Mitchell promises a “varied diet” of music, pulling from a broad spectrum and a broadening palette.
In addition to overseeing all artistic aspects of the Pasadena Symphony, Mitchell will collaborate on the orchestra’s highly regarded community and education programs, including the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras, which encompass eleven award-winning ensembles serving students of all musical abilities in grades 5-12.
On the subject of relating to kids, he says, “I grew up listening to the pop music of my parents’ generation, then I listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and then I listened to Beethoven. That’s when I began to understand what music actually is. It’s all emotion. In listening to Beethoven, I felt that the artist was someone having a hard time with something. As an artist, he was able to articulate it without words, and hearing that makes the rest of us feel less alone.”
Brett Mitchell will lead the majority of his concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony at the orchestra’s home of the Ambassador Auditorium, often referred to as the “Carnegie Hall of the West.”
Orchestrating a Graceful Future
Andrew Brown accepted the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Pasadena Symphony and POPS. He manages the Pasadena Symphony, the Pasadena POPS, under the direction of Principal Pops Conductor Michael Feinstein, and the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO), serving over 800 students in the San Gabriel Valley.
We spoke with Brown this week, who commented, “After a few years without a music director, we are honored and delighted to welcome Brett as our partner in building out our ensemble. His resume is superb, but beyond that, he’s both creative and pragmatic, and he brings planning, leadership, and organizational intelligence to the role in addition to his impeccable musical credentials.”
Brown says that Mitchell’s arrival brings with it a new sense of opportunity, as well as challenge. “We’ve relied for so long on the subscription model, but all of that was disrupted by the pandemic. There’s no denying the fact that thanks to digital technology, we can all enjoy incredible music while sitting at home in our pajamas, and of course, people got comfortable doing that for a few years of COVID-19. But now we’re inviting people to come back out into the world for an immersive musical experience, even if it’s only a couple of times a year. In the presence of live performance before a live audience, there’s a momentum, those goosebumps that you really can’t replicate any other way.”
To read the complete feature, ‘Brett Mitchell Is Listening,’ please click here.
Brett Mitchell Appointed Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony
Pasadena Symphony Appoints Brett Mitchell Music Director
Highly Acclaimed Conductor Assumes Post on April 1, 2024
PASADENA (March 22, 2024) – Pasadena Symphony Board President Kimberly Winick today announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Brett Mitchell Music Director. Mitchell begins his five-year tenure with Pasadena Symphony on April 1, 2024. His first performance as Music Director will be the orchestra’s season-opening concert on October 26, 2024 (2024/25 season details to be announced).
Winick states, “Brett Mitchell emerged from our competitive music director search as our all-around favorite, and I am delighted to welcome him as our new artistic leader. His energy and talent will engage, sustain, and help to broaden our musical community.”
Pasadena Symphony CEO Andrew Brown adds, “We are excited Brett Mitchell is joining the orchestra at this significant time in the orchestra’s history, with our centennial just four years away. Brett is a tremendous talent. With his deeply creative programming, broad vision, collaborative spirit, and innate ability to keep classical music fresh and inspire musicians and audiences alike, he is the right person to lead the orchestra into its second century.”
Mitchell says, “I'm deeply honored and absolutely thrilled to be joining the Pasadena Symphony as its next Music Director. From the first moment we made music together in March 2022, it was very clear that there was a special connection between the musicians and me, and that same chemistry has since extended beyond the stage to our friends in the audience and throughout our community. I couldn't be more excited for the musical journey that lies ahead for our entire community as we embark together on this next chapter of the Pasadena Symphony's story.”
Orchestra’s Sixth Music Director in Nearly a Century
Mitchell is the sixth conductor to serve as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony since the orchestra was founded in 1928. He succeeds distinguished Music Directors Reginald Bland (1928- 1936); Dr. Richard Lert (1936-1968); Daniel Lewis (1971-1982); Jorge Mester (1984-2010); and David Lockington (2013-2022). Pasadena Symphony, which has garnered considerable critical and public acclaim throughout its history, is a “virtuoso orchestra” lauded for “zesty, swaggering performances” (Los Angeles Times) and celebrated for its “superb tonal clarity and rich instrumental brilliance” (Pasadena Star News).
In addition to overseeing all artistic aspects of the Pasadena Symphony, Mitchell will collaborate on the orchestra’s highly regarded community and education programs, including the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras, which encompass eleven award-winning ensembles serving students of all musical abilities in grades 5-12.
Mitchell, who has been on Pasadena Symphony’s radar for several years, was previously named an Artistic Partner for the orchestra’s 2021-22 season. Based on the strength of that initial appearance, he was invited to return as an Artistic Partner during the orchestra's 2023-24 season, leading its well-received opening concerts last fall.
Coming Full Circle
Mitchell – who was born in 1979, raised in Seattle, Washington, and now resides in Denver, Colorado with his family, where they plan to remain – vividly recalls the music from the Star Wars and Superman films having a tremendous impact on him as a child. “The first time I heard an orchestra was in a movie theater on a film soundtrack,” he explains, inspiring him to earn a degree in music composition from Western Washington University. “I wanted to be a film composer but ended up writing orchestral works that, in a twist of fate, I started conducting, which I discovered was my true passion.” That led to him earning both Master’s and Doctorate degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin.
He continues, “In many ways, joining the Pasadena Symphony as Music Director is really coming full circle for me. So many of our musicians are these iconic studio players whose work I’ve known and loved for decades. To now be able to work with them and experience their artistry in person is a thrill beyond words.”
Additional Coverage
Colorado Boulevard (3/22): Brett Mitchell Is New Pasadena Symphony Music Director
Slippedisc (3/24): Pasadena Picks an American Music Director
Pizzicato (3/24): Pasadena Symphony appoints Brett Mitchell as Music Director
OperaWire (3/25): Pasadena Symphony Names Sixth Music Director in its History
Hey SoCal (3/25): Pasadena Symphony announces Brett Mitchell as new music director
Musical America (3/26): Pasadena Symphony Taps Music Director (subscription required)
Broadway World (3/27): Pasadena Symphony Appoints Brett Mitchell Music Director
Pasadena Now (3/27): Pasadena Symphony Names Brett Mitchell as Its Next Music Director
The Violin Channel (3/28): California's Pasadena Symphony Appoints New Music Director
Los Angeles Times (3/30): Easter music, alt art fair and the best L.A. culture in the week ahead
Symphony (4/1): Brett Mitchell Named Music Director at Pasadena Symphony
Local News Pasadena (4/4): Brett Mitchell is Listening
Pasadena Weekly (4/11): Major Music Changes: Pasadena Symphony appoints Brett Mitchell as new music director
Brett Mitchell will lead his first concerts as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony on October 26, 2024, at the orchestra’s home of the Ambassador Auditorium, often referred to as the “Carnegie Hall of the West.”
Brett Mitchell to open The Cleveland Orchestra’s classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival
Brett Mitchell will lead the opening concert of The Cleveland Orchestra’s classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival. (Photograph by Roger Mastroianni)
CLEVELAND — For the second time in four seasons, The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that Brett Mitchell will lead the opening concert of their classical series at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival.
On Saturday, July 6, Mr. Mitchell will be joined by banjoist Béla Fleck—fresh off his latest Grammy Award wins—to mark the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with his dazzling new transcription of this beloved showpiece. Mr. Mitchell rounds out this all-American evening with orchestral gems by Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, and William Grant Still.
The complete program:
BERNSTEIN - Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
GERSHWIN (trans. Fleck) - Rhapsody in Blue
Béla Fleck, banjo
BARBER - Overture to The School for Scandal
STILL - Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American Symphony)
Mr. Mitchell also led The Cleveland Orchestra in the opening concert of their classical series at the 2021 Blossom Music Festival, which marked the orchestra’s first public performance since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For tickets and more information about Mr. Mitchell’s performance at the 2024 Blossom Music Festival, please click here.