Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell invites you to Broadway Night 2013

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra continues its tradition of bringing the music of Broadway to Riverbend Music Center for the 2013 summer season. Brian Stokes Mitchell, star of Broadway, film, and television, hits the stage with the Pops Saturday, June 22. Pops Conductor John Morris Russell leads the Orchestra during the program with selections from Broadway-turned-film hits, such as Les Misérables, Chicago, South Pacific, My Fair Lady and more.

With vocals from “Stokes,” the Pops Orchestra is set to perform selections from Oklahoma and Ragtime, as he returns to the stage with the Cincinnati Pops. Earning fame for his baritone vocals, Stokes will perform some of the musical numbers that earned him numerous awards throughout his career. The city of Cincinnati loved Stokes’ performances in the past, and Mr. Russell and the Orchestra are eager to welcome him back.

Tickets for this concert are still available and can be purchased via the Pops Box Office by calling (513) 381-3300 or visiting www.cincinnatipops.org.

The Cincinnati Pops is grateful for their sponsors. Pops Series Presenting Sponsor is PNC and the Pops at Riverbend Series Sponsor is Paycor. The artist sponsor is Frost Brown Todd Attourneys, and the Performance Sponsor id Ernst & Young. Kids under 12 sit on the lawn for free, courtesy of Toyota.

Brian Stokes Mitchell, vocalist

Dubbed “The Last Leading Man” by the New York Times, Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a rich and varied career on Broadway, television and film, along with appearances in the great American concert halls.

His musical versatility has kept him in demand by some of the country’s finest conductors and orchestras. He has performed selections from “Porgy and Bess” with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall; Performed works by Aaron Copland and various contemporary composers at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic under the batons of Leonard Slatkin and John Mauceri; Broadway tunes at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch (most recently at the National Symphony Orchestra’s 75th season Pops concert debut), and Jazz and standards with Maestro John Williams at Disney Hall and with the Boston Pops. He recently debuted Pulitzer prize winning composer David Del Tredici’s “Rip Van Winkle” with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. He has been

invited to the White House and has performed for Presidents Clinton and Obama.

He reprised his Tanglewood performance in John Williams’ Jazz version of “My Fair Lady” at Disney Hall singing opposite Dianne Reeves. In 2005 he made his cabaret debut as both singer and musical arranger in New York at Feinstein’s at the Regency in his critically acclaimed one–man show “Love/Life” which then moved to the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. He received both the New York Bistro and Nightlife awards for his cabaret debut. He returned there in November of 2008 with a critically acclaimed concert where he was accompanied by a guitarist, a bassist and a percussionist.

He headlined the Carnegie Hall concert presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” with Reba McEntire, which aired on PBS in the Spring of 2006. It was also released on DVD and CD . He reprised his role along with Reba McEntire in July of 2007 at the Hollywood bowl then returned to The Hollywood bowl in August of 2008 starring as Javert in Les Miserables.

His Broadway career includes performances in “Man of La Mancha” (Tony nomination and Helen Hayes Award); “Kiss Me Kate” (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); “Ragtime” (Tony nomination); August Wilson’s “King Hedley II” (Tony nomination); “Kiss of the Spider Woman;” “Jelly’s Last Jam;” David Merrick’s “Oh, Kay!” and “Mail,” which earned him a Theatre World award for outstanding Broadway Debut.

Late last year, Stokes returned to Broadway after a 7 year absence to do concerts, film and TV and spend some family time with his young son. The show was Lincoln Center Theatre’s production of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and also starred Patti LuPone. Based on the Pedro Almodovar film of the same name, Stokes played the philandering Ivan. The cast album will be released May 10, 2011.

At Encores he has starred in “Do, Re, Mi” and “Carnival” and this last season starred in “Kismet.” In 1998 he joined the likes of Helen Hayes, Sir John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and James Earl Jones when he became the sole recipient of that year’s Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League, the nation’s oldest theatrical honor, for his performance in “Ragtime.”

His long television career began with a seven year stint on “Trapper John, MD.” Numerous film and TV appearances more recently include “One Last Thing” which debuted at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, recurring roles on “Crossing Jordan” and “Frasier,” PBS’ “Great Performances,” DreamWorks’ “The Prince of Egypt ,” and his “Presidential Debut” in “The Singer and the Song” from the White House.

In May of 2011, he opens in a new film “Jumping The Broom” playing opposite Angela Bassett for the 2nd time (The first being “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood” for Showtime). The film is a family wedding dramedy and also features Loretta Devine, Paula Patton and Laz Alonso. Stokes plays Mr. Watson, the well-to do father of the bride.

In 2006 he released his self-titled album as the inaugural artist on the newly -formed Playbill Records label. In addition to singing, Stokes produced the album and also wrote many of the arrangements and orchestrations. The executive producers are Playbill Record’s president, Philip Birsh and Richard-Jay Alexander . It was mixed by 15 -time Grammy winner Al Schmitt and the liner notes were penned by John Williams.

He continues to perform as both a soloist and a guest star at concerts all over the United States. In December of 2008 he performed as the musical guest artist at “Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square”. The concert was aired on PBS during Christmas of 2009.

Stokes has enjoyed working with numerous charitable organizations from the March of Dimes to the USO and is the 8-year Chairman of the Board of the Actors Fund.

–John Morris Russell, conductor

2012-2013 marks John Morris Russell’s sophomore season as the conductor of the Cincinnati Pops, to which he has brought both creative artistry and boundless energy. Consistently winning international praise for his extraordinary music-making and visionary leadership, he was recently named Music Director of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, in Hilton Head, South Carolina. He completed his role as Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada at the end of the 11/12 season whereupon he was named that orchestra’s first Conductor Laureate.

With his position at the Pops, Mr. Russell leads performances at Cincinnati’s Music Hall and the Riverbend Music Center; additionally he conducts the orchestra in concerts throughout the Greater Cincinnati region as well as on tour—serving as a musical ambassador to help cultivate the reputation of the Cincinnati region as one of the world’s leading cultural centers. No stranger to Cincinnati audiences, for many seasons John Morris Russell served as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati

Symphony Orchestra. He was recognized for his innovative programming and commitment to attracting new and diverse audiences to orchestral music, creating the Classical Roots: Spiritual Heights series, which brought the music of African-American composers and performers to thousands of listeners in area churches, and was also the co-creator of the Christmas spectacular, Home for the Holidays.

As a guest conductor, Mr. Russell has worked with many of North America’s most distinguished ensembles, leading Canadian orchestras that include Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo and Orchestra London.

In the US he has conducted the orchestras of Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Dallas, Louisville, Miami’s New World Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, New York Pops, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival. Abroad he conducted at the famed Musikverein in Vienna in a concert that featured the Harlem Boychoir, the Vienna Choir Boys and the actor Gregory Peck. The performance continues to be televised throughout Europe, Japan and in the USA on PBS.

2011-2012 marked Mr. Russell’s eleventh and final season as Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. While at Windsor he fostered a decade of unprecedented artistic growth and invigorated the musical life of the Windsor-Essex region.

Under John Morris Russell’s baton, the WSO made seventeen national broadcasts on CBC Radio 2; the most recent broadcast recording of Aurora Borealis by Jordon Nobles, was selected to represent Canada in June, 2010 in the 57th annual International Rostrum of Composers in Lisbon, Portugal. The WSO’s first nationally televised production was created with Mr. Russell for the CBC Television series Opening Night, and subsequently won the Gold Worldmedal for “Best Performance Program” at the New York Festivals Awards for Television and New Media, as well as a Gemini Award Nomination. In 2006 the Windsor Symphony Orchestra released Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf narrated by the internationally acclaimed actor, Colm Feore, and Last Minute Lulu, composed by WSO Composer-in-Residence, Brent Lee, with text by the Newbery Medal winning author, Christopher Paul Curtis.

The recording won Mr. Russell and the WSO its first Juno nomination for Best Children’s Album in 2008. Mr. Russell helped nurture many new voices in Canadian music, conducting numerous Windsor premiers of important Canadian works and over 45 world premiers of commissioned compositions. He created the WSO’s first multi-year composer-in-residence position, and was deeply involved in the production of the annual Windsor Canadian Music Festival, described by CBC producer David Jaeger as, “one of the most exciting and innovative developments to appear lately in the Canadian musical scene.” A two-time recipient of Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Arts, as well as the Ontario Arts Council’s Vida Peene Award for Artistic Excellence, in 2010 Mr. Russell received the prestigious Herb Gray Harmony Award by the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County, in recognition of the WSO’s programming and outreach activities. In October of 2010 he was honored as the first recipient of the Arts Leadership Award by the Windsor Endowment for the Arts, in recognition of the enormous contribution he has made to the region’s cultural life. And in the spring of 2011 the University of Windsor awarded John Morris Russell an Honorary Doctor of Law degree.

John Morris Russell is widely considered one of North America’s leaders in orchestral educational programming. From 1997 to 2009 he conducted the “LinkUP!” educational concert series at Carnegie Hall, the oldest and most celebrated series of its kind, created by Walter Damrosch in 1891 and made famous by Leonard Bernstein. The “Sound Discoveries” series Mr. Russell developed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra remains a leading model for educational concerts.

John Morris Russell has also served as associate conductor of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, director of the orchestral program at Vanderbilt University, and music director with the College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He received a Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Williams College in Massachusetts. He has also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine.