LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Award-winning pianist featured in free solo piano concert at SMC | St. Mary's College | SMC Moraga


Bobby Mitchell Photo provided

Bobby Mitchell is an American pianist whose interests are embedded in the here and now of music as performance art, as well as the more standard classical repertory of centuries past. He is a frequent performer of new and rarely heard works, and his interests lie mainly with the contemporary music canon and combining these works with the standard repertoire in an illuminating fashion. This young award-inning American international concert pianist, recording artist, composer, author and teacher will perform a free solo piano concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 31, at the Saint Mary's College Chapel.

Known as an instrumentalist "who is not afraid to cross the traditional boundaries of programming and performance practice," Mitchell is active as a solo and collaborative concert pianist on modern and historical instruments and is also experienced in the fields of improvisation, composition, and conducting. Significant solo activities include numerous performances of Frederic Rzewski's epic 36 Variations on `The People United Will Never Be Defeated!' and frequent work with composers such as Frederic Rzewski, Steve Reich, and Louis Andriessen as well as regular work with peer composers of his own generation.

Mitchell records for the Alpha / Outhere music label (Haydn on an original pianoforte), and his YouTube channel has become an internet phenomenon for classical and improvised piano music, with more than a half million views.