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BIOGRAPHY

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo Soprano

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, a native of Dallas, Texas, has been called “an intense interpreter; an extremely communicative singer whose artistic talent goes beyond the use of her voice.” She is a versatile performer who appears in a variety of repertoire on the concert, opera and recital stages and has been recognized by audiences, critics and colleagues as having a rich voice with unusual size, timbre and an extraordinary range. With a voice ideally suited to the German romantic repertoire, she has been praised for her interpretations of Wagner, Mahler and Strauss. The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini wrote that she sang with a “dark-hued sound and elegance,” and the Wall Street Journal called her "the most finished artist, sensitive to every nuance of the text."

This season has seen two return engagements with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Rihm's Memoria.  Two concerts entitled Under a Latin Moon and two more called Love and Other Difficulties were sung with the Aurea Ensemble in Rhode Island and at Shakespeare & Company featuring songs of Villalobos and Respighi's  Il Tramonto.  A return to the Chorus of Westerly for Durufle's Requiem, OperaProvidence for two opera concerts, and debuts with the Charlotte Symphony in Bach’s Mass in B minor and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos  and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Boston's Symphony Hall and New York's Carnegie Hall cap the season.

Ms. Mitchell-Velasco began the 07/08 season with summer performances of Debussy's La Damoiselle Élue at Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival and a Duo Recital, Love under the Stars, with her tenor husband, Noel Espíritu Velasco, for Matunuck RI’s Willow Dell Historical Association. October brought a Chamber Music Recital at Falmouth MA’s Highfield Hall featuring Brahms’ Zwei Lieder für Alt und Brasche, Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder and Loeffler’s Quatre Poëmes, and November Beethoven’s Mass in C in a return to RI’s Westerly Chorus. Then in December came Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Andreas Delfs on her return to Milwaukee and her debut with Honolulu Symphony. 

The 2006/07 season began with a Verdi Requiem in Ms. Mitchell-Velasco’s debut with the New Hampshire Music Festival. Two recitals and a live broadcast on Boston’s NPR station WGBH featured Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with baritone René de la Garza and pianist Timothy Steele, coupled with giving a Masterclass on German Lieder at the University of Rhode Island. December marked a return to Carnegie Hall for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Collegiate Chorale. January saw a last-minute replacement in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, again at Carnegie Hall, with Helmut Rilling conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Carnegie Festival Choir. Four other recitals have been scheduled, one with tenor Noel Espíritu Velasco in Honolulu last November, a second with the Blackstone Valley Chamber Series in February, a third repeating Wunderhorn in Chopin Club President’s Concert in Providence, and a fourth one at the Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio) featuring an all-French program of Poulenc, Ravel and Loeffler, the last two in April 2007. March 2007 include a return to the Providence Singers for their American Masterpieces Choral Festival and yet another Verdi Requiem, this time with Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose, California. Two engagements of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, in a return to Milwaukee Symphony and a debut with Phoenix Symphony, will highlight May 2007.

Season 2005/06 included returns to Toledo Opera as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, to Houston Symphony with Hans Graf in Verdi’s Requiem, and to Milwaukee Symphony with Andreas Delfs in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, as well as debuts in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, in the Verdi Requiem with the Syracuse Symphony, and in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with San Diego Symphony and Jahja Ling (with whom Ms. Mitchell-Velasco previously sang a Verdi Requiem with Florida Orchestra). A Recital Concert at Ohio State University (with a Master Classes entitled The Commonalities between Vocal and Instrumental Performance) in November and a Duo Recital with husband Noel in Pasadena CA in May completed the season.

The 2004/05 season began with a Masterclass and a reprise of her Solo Recital La Femme! at Binghamton University. On her return to sing Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Benjamin Zander and Boston Philharmonic, Boston Globe wrote: "She has a dark and opulent voice...she brought intensity and passion to her songs." She returned to West Virginia Symphony to sing Brahms' Alto Rhapsody in March. Three debuts come this season: as Parséïs in Massenet's Esclarmonde with Washington Concert Opera, and in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Michael Christie and Brooklyn Philharmonic in April and Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony in June. A return to the Chorus of Westerly and the Boston Festival Orchestra for Mozart's Requiem in May as well as an immediate return to the Washington Concert Opera as Federica in Verdi's Luisa Miller in June add to the season. With her husband, tenor Noel Espiritu Velasco, she sang a tribute to Sarah Caldwell last October, and will sing in a function at Boston's Opera House in May and a Duo Recital in San Francisco in June.

In her recent return to the Florentine Opera to portray Brangæne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, critic Erik Eriksson said: "Gigi Mitchell-Velasco is world-class in every aspect. Slim, even willowy, she creates a devoted companion who seeks to do right, but sets loose forces beyond her comprehension. Mitchell-Velasco's mezzo is beautiful, compact and supple, offering an unbroken legato unmatched since her mentor, the great Christa Ludwig, commanded the role. To hear her pour forth measure after measure of inexhaustible tone carries one back to the era when Wagnerian titans regularly trod the world stages. In addition, her ‘Watch’ was voiced with palpable apprehension, its exquisite sound floating over the lovers in the troubled nighttime." 2003/04’s season also included L’Enfance du Christ as Chorus pro Musica celebrated Berlioz’ 200th birth anniversary on December 11, 2003 at Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Handel’s Messiah with Providence Singers in Providence RI and New Haven CT. On portraying Federica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller with Opera Boston, Opera News wrote: “Rounding out the cast was the promising Gigi Mitchell-Velasco as Luisa's rival, Duchess Federica, whose rich, warm mezzo-soprano voice filled the theater.” Singing in Mahler’s Third Symphony with Zander and NEC’s Youth Philharmonic, Boston Globe wrote: “Mezzo-soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco sang her solo with rich tone, eloquence, and restraint.”

The 2002/03 season began with a September 11 Memorial Concert in Providence’s First Baptist Church in America. An October Solo Recital La Femme! for National Breast Cancer Awareness in Providence’s Bell Chapel Music Series featured Beethovens Klärchen songs from Egmont, Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben, Wolf songs, Berlioz' La Mort de Cléopâtre and Gwyneth Walker's No Ordinary Woman! December brought her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium with Andreas Delfs conducting. January featured a live broadcast Recital/Interview on Boston’s public radio WGBH-FM and a Solo Recital at Pickman Concert Hall in Cambridge MA to promote the U.S. release of her Korngold CD on November 27, 2002. There were two Valentines concerts of Brahms’ Liebeslieder Wälzer in Rhode Island in February; then her first performances as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte with Toledo Opera in April. In May, she returned to Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and then back to Rhode Island for Dvorák’s Stabat Mater with the Chorus of Westerly and the Boston Festival Orchestra. June and July were filled with recitals, one with the Blackstone Valley Heritage Series featuring Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’Été and 15 concerts in her highly anticipated debut at the Newport Music Festival which included Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and 75 various other songs, mostly by Poulenc.

On September 29, 2001, a stirring Verdi Requiem with the New Philharmonia Orchestra to an overflowing audience marked a Memorial Concert for those who were lost on September 11th, prompting the Boston Globe to say: “She poured out opulent and impassioned tone throughout the evening, thrilling the listener particularly in the declamatory Liber scriptus proferetur.” In preparation for her forthcoming recording for ASV in January (released in the U.K. and Europe in October 7, 2002) of the works for mezzo-soprano and orchestra of Erich Wolfgang Korngold with Caspar Richter and the Bruckner Orchestra, Ms. Mitchell-Velasco presented a Solo Recital of Korngold’s Einfache Lieder and Abschiedslieder along with songs of Mahler and Strauss on December 23, 2001. Engagements in 2002 included Kodaly’s Te Deum with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem with Jahja Ling and the Florida Orchestra, Bach’s Matthäuspassion with Andreas Delfs and the Milwaukee Symphony, and a pair of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, with Paul Phillips and the Pioneer Valley Symphony and the other with Hans Graf and the Calgary Philharmonic. That summer, she sang a Duo Recital and Masterclasses with tenor Noel Espíritu Velasco at the Taylor Choral Festival in Little Rock. Arkansas

In the 2000/01 season, Miss Mitchell-Velasco sang in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Hans Graf and the National Symphony at Wolf Trap and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the West Virginia Symphony at Snowshoe Music Festival. She then traveled abroad for performances in Prague, where she portrayed the title role in Bizet’s Carmen with the Prague State Opera under Rudolf Kre(mer, and participated at the Prague Autumn Festival singing concerts with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra sings in the Dvorák Requiem with Dimitrij Kitajenko and Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles with Vladimir Valek. Ms. Mitchell-Velasco was hand-picked by her mentor, Christa Ludwig, to participate in her Carnegie Hall Symposium on Brahms and Mahler, to sing in a series of Master Classes and in the concluding Recital Concert. She returned to Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall to sing in the Verdi Requiem with the National Chorale, and made her debut with the Santa Barbara Symphony under Gisèle Ben-Dor in Mahler’s Third Symphony. She reprised Verdi’s Requiem with David Stahl and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and sang with the Essex Symphony in their inaugural concert featuring de Falla’s El Amor Brujo and Copland’s Old American Songs.

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco’s 1999-2000 season included her Carnegie Hall debut singing in Bruckner’s Te Deum with the New York Choral Society. The season also marked her first performances of two Strauss roles which are among the mainstay in her repertoire: the title role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, in her debut with the Minnesota Opera; and The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, in her return to the New York Opera Project. She also made her debut with the San Antonio Symphony in Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette, and returned to Masterworks Chorale in Boston for Verdi’s Requiem. In the 1998/99 season, Miss Mitchell-Velasco made her debuts with Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic at Boston’s Symphony Hall as Alto I: Mulier Samaritana in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, and with Boston’s Masterworks Chorale in A Night at the Opera.

Other engagements have included concerts with the New York Choral Society as Alto II: Maria Aegyptiaca in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall and the Philadelphia Academy of Music, with the Martinú Philharmonic in Vienna and Prague in the Mozart Requiem, with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as Brangæne in a concert version of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, with the Pioneer Valley Symphony on two day’s notice in Ravel’s Shéhérazade and de Falla’s El Amor Brujo, and various performances with Sarah Caldwell and the Ural State Philharmonic in Ekaterinburg (Russia) of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, highlights of Bizet’s Carmen (title role) and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Suzuki), the Verdi Requiem, and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (role of Geneviève), the last two concerts being telecast over Russian television.

1995 marked Ms. Mitchell-Velasco's European debut with the Staatstheater Braunschweig (Germany) singing the role of Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and was immediately re-engaged there in the role of Mary in Wagner’s Die Fliegende Holländer. When Miss Mitchell-Velasco sang a performance of Die Fledermaus as Prince Orlofsky in Boston, she also perfected a flute “duel” with Boston Symphony flutist Fenwick Smith in the party scene to everyone’s astonishment and delight. Miss Mitchell-Velasco was engaged by Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York for concert performances of Tristan und Isolde (Brangæne), and portrayed the roles of Federica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller with the Lansing Lyric Opera in Michigan, the Mother and the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, and Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the New York Opera Project. Throughout her career, Gigi Mitchell-Velasco’s assortment of opera roles have also included Amneris in Aïda, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Flora in La Traviata and Erste Magd in Elektra.

In addition, Miss Mitchell-Velasco has been heard in Handel’s Messiah, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, and Bernstein’s “Lamentation” from his Jeremiah Symphony. She has sung recital concerts in Ekaterinburg (Russia), New York, Providence and with Connecticut’s Litchfield Performing Arts Series in a varied repertoire in French, German, Spanish, Russian and English, and her specialty is the Lieder Recital, featuring songs and song cycles of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Mahler, Wolf, Pfitzner and Berg.

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with a degree in Flute. While at the Institute, her voice made quite an impression and she was urged to take up vocal study. She was ultimately accepted into the Curtis Opera Department. Miss Mitchell-Velasco was then offered a double major of flute and voice, but chose instead to focus on the flute, which she has been playing since childhood. Upon graduating from Curtis, she went to the Opera Company of Boston as principal flutist, a position she held for eight years. During this time, she also worked with the London Symphony’s principal flutist, Peter Lloyd. However, upon encouragement from renowned mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, Miss Mitchell-Velasco began singing once again. After studying for only a few months, she participated in the Rosa Ponselle International Voice Competition and placed in the top 25 singers winning the Silver Rose Award. She was also a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions and was in the Santa Fe Opera Artist Apprentice Program. She studied with Mignon Dunn and subsequently worked extensively with Christa Ludwig who encouraged her greatly. Miss Ludwig also arranged for Miss Mitchell-Velasco to sing for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf who was most complimentary. In May 1993, she was awarded the first Robert Lauch Memorial Grant by the Wagner Society of New York, a grant she was again awarded in 1996, and in 1999 she received another grant from them. In 1997 she won the American Wagner Association Award in the Liederkranz Competition for Wagnerian Voice. In 1966 she won First Prize in the Annamaria Saritelli-diPanni Bel Canto Award, and in 2001 received a Grant from the Bel Canto Scholarship Foundation. She was also a European finalist of the Pavarotti International Voice Competition and a finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions. Miss Mitchell-Velasco has also worked as a chamber musician, teacher, coach and pianist-accompanist.

March 2010

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