Evan Mitchell is proving to be one of the most able and imaginative conductors in Canada. Mitchell has enjoyed seven triumphant seasons as Music Director of the Kingston Symphony, garnering praise for his programming, approach, and musical results. Prior to the pandemic, the past four seasons’ worth of Kingston Symphony Masterworks Series performances, under Mitchell’s leadership, have been completely sold out.

Mitchell is one of Canada’s pre-eminent conductors of film scores live in concert, having performed nearly 20 distinct film programs live to projection. After performing Singin’ in the Rain with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, he proceeded to conduct the North American première of Patricia Ward Kelly’s curated show Gene Kelly: A Life in Music with the Kingston Symphony. He has a long-standing relationship with Attila Glatz Concert Productions as well as CineConcerts, and has conducted all eight of the Harry Potter films.

During the 2020 pandemic, Mitchell wrote, produced, directed, and edited several standout digital orchestral initiatives, which exponentially increased the KSO’s online profile of viewership. The Kingston Symphony’s digital performances, Symphonic Education Partnership presentation, and landmark web series for young audiences entitled Harmon in Space, among others, have reached more than 100,000 viewers, and have been internationally acclaimed as being the benchmark for digital excellence in innovation.

Mitchell is a champion of initiatives designed to enhance the live concert experience, such as insider videos, informational podcasts, pre-concert talks, and special concerts devoted to live, onstage insights into major orchestral works. His program SoundSync, which involves real-time guided-listening updates delivered silently to mobile devices during the concert, was recently hailed as one of Canada’s best innovations for the live concert experience by the CBC.

Equally comfortable in the realms of contemporary music, opera, and ballet, Mitchell has premièred more than 30 new Canadian works ranging from the SOCAN Award–winning opera Storybook by Darren Russo, to Ryan Trew’s newly commissioned Symphony No. 1, as well as two digital full-orchestra world premières during the COVID-19 lockdown (John Estacio’s Domestic Divertimento and Dean Burry’s Tracing Colville). He is a strong and vocal advocate for new, substantial, Canadian works.

As the Vancouver Symphony’s past Assistant Conductor, Mitchell is extraordinarily grateful to the VSO for his time and experience with such a world-class orchestra. He considers that experience to have been the most important element of his development as a conductor.