Brett Mitchell

Brett Mitchell (born July 2, 1979) is an American conductor who currently serves as Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. He previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France from 2006–09, Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony from 2007–11, Music Director of the Moores Opera Center in Houston from 2012–13, and Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra from 2010-15. In September 2016, Mitchell was named as the new music director of the Colorado Symphony.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Mitchell began piano studies at age 6, and studied piano, percussion, and saxophone throughout elementary, middle, and high school. He gave his first public performances as a conductor while at Lynnwood High School in 1995 at the age of 16, leading both orchestra and wind ensemble concerts, and served as music director for his first musical in the spring of 1996 while still a high-school junior.

Mitchell began undergraduate work on a degree in music composition at Western Washington University in the fall of 1997. During his four years there, he studied composition and conducting with Roger Briggs and piano with Margaret Brink and Jeffrey Gilliam. As a conductor, he organized many student performances, conducted the school's orchestra, collaborated with faculty in concerto performances, and served as music director for multiple summer stock and other music theater productions. As a composer, Mitchell wrote both concert works and scores for local television and student films. He won numerous piano scholarships, and was named Presser Scholar and Outstanding Graduating Senior in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

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