John Mitchell

American classical composer John Mitchell was born in Hollywood, California on April 26,1941, first son of John Stewart Mitchell, pianist and cousin of Canadian novelist W.O. Mitchell, and Hungarian-born singer Teresa Hideg Mitchell. He studied music composition at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became a protégé of Dr. John Vincent, then head of composition. In 1965, after Dr.Vincent lost his position to proponents of atonality (no melodies or harmonies) there was no place at UCLA for a composer writing in traditional forms, and John Mitchell left, but he and Dr.Vincent remained close friends until Vincent's death in 1977. Since 1962 Mitchell has been a church music director, organist, and opera coach. His compositions include works for solo piano and organ, choral music, chamber music, art songs and operas. In 2000-2002 he has written two piano sonatas, a song cycle based on T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, a setting of Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came for vocal quartet, a quartet for flute, viola, bassoon and piano, a dance suite for piano, a requiem mass, and song settings of poetry of Anne Sexton. Current projects include song settings of the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Persian poet Kabir (in translation), South American poets Jorge Luis Borges and Delmira Agustini (in the original Spanish), a string quartet, and an opera based on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Mitchell is a member of the American Guild of Organists, the American Music Center, and the Center for Promotion of Contemporary Composers. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Vicky , a dog named Chelsea, and six cats (Elizabeth, Adolf, Shelley, Isolde, Babalou and Hobbes).