In Friday’s (2/12) Saginaw News (Michigan), Sue White writes, “Brett Mitchell knew of Saginaw long before the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra put him on the short list in its search for a new conductor. ‘I grew up with pop music, and I fell in love with Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘America’ and that great line, ‘It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw,’’ said the Seattle native, in town to lead Saturday’s concert. ‘They opened with that song when I saw them in concert in 2004, in Cincinnati. It’s exciting to actually be here myself.’ Simon and Garfunkel aren’t on the bill Saturday—the program includes Verdi’s The Sicilian Vespers Overture, Wagner’s ‘Siegfried,’ Diamond’s ‘Rounds’ and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5—but Mitchell is firmly grounded in contemporary as well as classical music. And the Assistant Conductor/American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony and the Orchestre National de France brings much more, including a decade of experience that includes everything from leading college orchestras to some of the most prestigious in the world. … If named conductor, Mitchell says he will use all that has come before to take the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra into the 21st century by embracing life outside the concert hall.”
Posted February 12, 2010
