Photo Credit: Jeffrey Hornstein
Cellist Mitchell Lyon approaches music making with a zeal for harnessing the unique power of musical experience. At home with audiences of all types, he has performed in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to intimate private homes. Mitch is a founding member of Empire Wild, a genre-bending crossover trio and Ambassador Prize Winner of the 2020 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Last season the trio delighted audiences with their signature mix of original songwriting and unique arrangements at venues across the country including a stop at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center and a concert on the Harriman-Jewell concert series in Kansas City. This fall will feature a Midwest tour through ten states along with educational workshops in Iowa and Ohio.
Passionate about community engagement and education, Mitch has been on the Teaching Artist Faculty of the New York Philharmonic since 2014, visiting schools across all five boroughs of NYC and scripting and performing interactive concerts for thousands of students. He frequently leads workshops for students of all ages and abilities, most recently at The Juilliard School Extension Division and the Preucil School Chamberfest (IA). An alumnus of Juilliard (B.M., M.M.), Mitch was the recipient of several fellowships and led a multidisciplinary team of performing artists—actors, dancers, and musicians—to New Orleans in 2012 and 2013 to help rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina.
Mitch regularly spends summers as an artist faculty member at Omaha Conservatory of Music’s Soundwaves Festival and the Charles Ives Music Festival at WCYO. In past summers, Mitch has performed at the Caroga Lake Music Festival, the Fontainebleau School in France, Finchcocks Museum of Keyboard Instruments in Kent, UK, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and at the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School in Santa Cruz, CA.
Mitch’s primary teachers have included Bonnie Hampton and Timothy Eddy along with masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Mark Kosower and Andres Diaz. He also spent four summers at the Meadowmount School of Music working with Melissa Kraut and Hans Jensen, as well as time at the Castleman Quartet Program and Montecito Summer Music Festival. Away from the cello, he can be found cooking, reading something geeky or plotting his next hike. mitchlyoncello.com