Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Hailed for delivering compelling performances of innovative, eclectic programs, Brett Mitchell was named the fourth music director of the Colorado Symphony in 2016 after serving as music director designate during the 2016-17 Season. He concluded his four-year appointment in 2021 and is currently artistic director and conductor of the Sun River Music Festival in Oregon. He is in consistent demand as a guest conductor. 

Brett concluded his tenure with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2017. He joined the orchestra as assistant conductor in 2013 and was promoted to associate in 2015, becoming the orchestra’s first associate conductor in more than three decades. He also served as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, which he led on a four-city tour of China. He returned to Cleveland to lead subscription concerts in 2019 and 2021.  

From 2007 to 2011, Brett led more than 100 performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He has held assistant conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur, and at the Castleton Festival with Lorin Maazel. In 2015, he completed a five-year tenure as music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. 

As an opera conductor, Brett has conducted many productions, principally during his 2010-2013 tenure as music director of Houston’s Moores Opera Center. His repertoire spans the core works of Mozart, Verdi, and Stravinsky, and contemporary works by Adamo, Aldridge, Catán, and Hagen. 

Well-known for working with and mentoring talented young musicians aspiring to be professional orchestral players, Brett is active in summer training programs such as the Texas Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Interlochen, and the Sarasota Music Festival. 

Born in Seattle in 1979, Brett Mitchell holds degrees in conducting from the University of Texas in Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its 2014 Young Alumnus of the Year. He studied at the National Conducting Institute and was selected by Masur for the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship. He was one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship Program from 2007 to 2010.