Gigi Mitchell-Velasco
Mezzo-soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco returns to The Phoenix Symphony where she debuted in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in 2007. She first sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Michael Christie at Brooklyn Philharmonic, then at Colorado Music Festival and Phoenix. Proclaimed “world-class in every aspect” and protégée of Christa Ludwig, she is among international artists of the world’s opera and concert stages. With a voice ideally suited to the German romantic repertoire, she has been praised by critics, colleagues and public alike for her interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Wagner.
Recent performances saw her debuts with Früheck de Burgos and Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with Orchêstre Symphonique de Québec in Verdi’s Requiem and Charlotte Symphony in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and returns to Chorus of Westerly in Duruflé’s Requiem and to Dallas Symphony & Jaap van Zweden in Wolfgang Rihm’s Memoria, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Beethoven’s Ninth.
Her extensive concert engagements include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Second, Third and Eighth Symphonies, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St. Matthew Passion, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, Mozart’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Requiem and Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, Berlioz’ Romeo et Juliette and L’Enfance du Christ, Handel’s Messiah, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, de Falla’s El Amor Brujo, Wagner’s Wesendoncklieder. In opera, she portrayed Brangæne (Tristan und Isolde), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Carmen, Maddalena (Rigoletto), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Witch and Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible), Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus), Federica (Luisa Miller), Parséïs (Esclarmonde) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly).
She has performed with such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Helmut Rilling, Hans Graf, Andrew Litton, Sarah Caldwell, Eiji Oue, Andreas Delfs, Jahja Ling, Yoav Talmi, David Stahl, Antony Walker and Benjamin Zander, at Carnegie Hall and Weill Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Konzert-Haus, Prague’s Dvorak and Smetana Halls, with the orchestras of San Francisco, Boston, Prague, Minnesota, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego, Florida, Charleston, the opera companies of Boston, Houston, Prague, Minnesota, Brauschweig (Germany), Florentine, Toledo, Washington Concert Opera, the music festivals of Newport, Wolf Trap, Prague Autumn, Grant Park, Colorado and Snowshoe.
Well-versed in many languages, she has sung countless song recitals from New York to Manila and Singapore to Russia. Summer 2003 saw her debut at Newport Music Festival in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and 14 other concerts of various works, mostly by Poulenc. She has given master classes at Ohio State University and Binghamton University, and adjudicated the 2004 Canadian Music Competitions (Toronto). She can be heard singing Korngold’s Einfache Lieder and Abschiedslieder on the ASV label, as well as in Lukas Foss’ The Prairie with the Providence Singers on the BMOP label. Ms. Mitchell-Velasco is also an accomplished flutist, pianist and organist.
