February 20, 2026
Plus acclaimed pianist Terrence Wilson replaces Joyce Yang to perform Gershwin Concerto in F
Pasadena, CA – Music Director Brett Mitchell and the Pasadena Symphony are pleased to announce that Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Alec Baldwin will narrate Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait for the 2025-26 season finale concert, America@250 on May 30, 2026. Known for his versatility, commanding presence and ability to move seamlessly between comedy and drama, Baldwin will bring a distinctive voice to Copland’s ode to Abraham Lincoln, following in the footsteps of the esteemed thespians who have come before him in this role including Henry Fonda, James Earl Jones, Katharine Hepburn, Vincent Price, and Copland himself to name a few. A longtime champion of Classical Music, Baldwin has performed Lincoln Portrait with the Philadelphia Orchestra and is a board member and the Radio Host of The New York Philharmonic.
This celebration of America@250 highlights American composition throughout the last century, opening with John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare, written to commemorate the centennial of the Statute of Liberty and closing with Copland’s popular Appalachian Spring Suite. Also on the program, Gershwin’s vibrant Jazz-infused Concerto in F will feature Grammy-nominated pianist Terrence Wilson. Wilson replaces pianist Joyce Yang, who was previously scheduled to perform Jonathan Leshnoff’s Rhapsody on America, but is recovering from a temporary injury.
“I can’t imagine a better way to wrap up our season and celebrate America’s 250th birthday than with these two extraordinary artists performing these two iconic works, and I couldn’t be more excited to share the stage with them both.” – Brett Mitchell, Music Director
The Pasadena Symphony provides a vibrant experience specially designed for the music lover, the social butterfly or a date night out. Arrive early for the pre-concert discussion Insights with KUSC host Brian Lauritzen, Music Director Brett Mitchell, and composer Jeffrey Nytch, whose work Beacon will open the program. Nearby Old Town Pasadena provides a host of revered dining options or enjoy a bite or a glass along Ambassador Auditorium’s veranda, which offers two full-service beverage centers serving fine wines, spirits and coffee, plus snacks, charcuterie and dessert before the concert and during intermission.
America@250 takes place at Ambassador Auditorium, 131 South St. John Ave, Pasadena, CA on Saturday, May 30 with matinee and evening performances at 2pm and 8pm. Single tickets start at $65 and may be purchased online at www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org or by calling (626) 793-7172.
- What: The Pasadena Symphony presents America@250
Brett Mitchell, conductor
Terrence Wilson, piano
Williams Liberty Fanfare
Gershwin Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra
Copland Appalachian Spring Suite
Copland Lincoln Portrait
- When: Saturday, May 30, 2026, at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
- Where: Ambassador Auditorium | 131 South St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105
- Cost: Tickets start at $65.00
- Parking: Valet parking is available on St. John Ave for $30. General parking is available in two locations: next to Ambassador Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave) at the covered parking structure, and directly across Green St. at the Wells Fargo parking structure (entrance on Terrace at Green). ADA parking is located at the above-ground parking lot adjacent to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John). Parking may be pre-purchased for $15 in advance or $20 onsite. Parking purchased onsite is cash only.
Brett Mitchell
Conductor
Hailed for the breadth of his work on the podium and at the piano, Brett Mitchell has carved a
unique path for himself in the world of contemporary American classical music. Mitchell began
a five-year term as Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony—an orchestra composed of the
greatest studio musicians in Hollywood—in 2024, and has served as Artistic Director & Conductor of Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival since 2022.
In May 2025, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Mitchell stepped in for his subscription debut with the New York Philharmonic, leading three performances of Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light featuring soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry, followed by the complete score of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé featuring the New York Philharmonic Chorus.
Working widely as a guest conductor, Mitchell’s other recent engagements have included appearances with the Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, National, North Carolina, Oregon, San Antonio, San Francisco, Tulsa, and Vancouver symphonies; the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras; the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; the River Oaks and Saint Paul chamber orchestras; the Grant Park Festival Orchestra; and a two-week tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has also guest conducted the Grant Park Festival Orchestra and led a two-week tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Mitchell regularly
collaborates with the world’s leading soloists, including Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Kirill Gerstein, Conrad Tao, Rudolf Buchbinder, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Leila Josefowicz, and Alisa Weilerstein.
From 2017 to 2021, Mitchell served as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in Denver, following a term as Music Director Designate during the 2016–17 season. During his tenure, he led the organization through a period of significant artistic growth, helped position the orchestra as a central cultural voice in the region, strengthened community ties via strategic collaborations, and broadened the orchestra’s commitment to American music with new commissions, premieres, and recordings.
From 2013 to 2017, Mitchell served on the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra, joining as Assistant Conductor in 2013 and receiving a promotion to Associate Conductor in 2015. More than a decade later, he continues to return as a frequent guest conductor, having led more than 150 performances with the orchestra over the past twelve years.
From 2007 to 2011, Mitchell led over one hundred performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony, to which he also continues to return regularly as a guest conductor. He held Assistant Conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur from 2006 to 2009, and the Castleton Festival, where he worked under Lorin Maazel in 2009 and 2010. In 2015, Mitchell completed a highly successful five-year appointment as Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, where an increased focus on locally relevant programming and community collaborations resulted in record attendance throughout his tenure.
Equally at home in the pit, Mitchell has served as music director of nearly a dozen opera productions spanning the core works of Mozart, Verdi, and Stravinsky to contemporary works by Mark Adamo, Robert Aldridge, Daniel Catán, and Daron Hagen. As a ballet conductor, Mitchell most recently led seven performances of The Nutcracker with the Pennsylvania Ballet in collaboration with The Cleveland Orchestra.
In addition to his work with professional orchestras, Mitchell is widely recognized for his commitment to mentoring young musicians. During his highly regarded tenure as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (2013–17), he led a much-lauded four-city tour of China in 2015. At home, he has worked extensively with students at this country’s leading training programs, including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Interlochen Center for the Arts, National Repertory Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival, and Texas Music Festival. He has also held faculty appointments at Northern Illinois University (2005–07), the University of Houston (2012–13), and the University of Denver (2019–20, 2022–23).
Also, an accomplished pianist, Mitchell has a devoted fanbase of his work at the keyboard, including a widely praised YouTube channel featuring his original transcriptions of iconic cues from film history. He also concertizes regularly at the piano, often performing in recital with musicians from his orchestras. In recognition of his work at the keyboard, Mitchell was named a Steinway Artist by Steinway & Sons in 2025.
Born in Seattle in 1979, Mitchell holds degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014. He studied with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in 2005 and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship in 2008. Mitchell also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship from 2007 to 2010.
For more information, please visit brettmitchellconductor.com.
Alec Baldwin
Narrator
Since 1980, Alec Baldwin has appeared in numerous productions on stage, in films and on television. He received a Tony nomination (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1992) an Oscar nomination (The Cooler, 2004) and has won three Emmy awards, three Golden Globes, and seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on NBC-TV’s 30 Rock, making him the actor with the most SAG Awards of all time. His films include Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Edge, It’s Complicated, Blue Jasmine, Still Alice, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and The Boss Baby among many others.
Baldwin earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1994 and has received honorary doctorates from NYU (2010) and the Manhattan School of Music (2012). He has served on numerous boards related to the arts, the environment and public policy including the Hamptons International Film Festival, Bay Street Theater, The Actors Studio, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and the Roundabout Theatre Company. He currently serves on the board of People for the American Way and the New York Philharmonic.
He has authored three books: A Promise to Ourselves, his memoir entitled Nevertheless and, with Kurt Andersen, the Donald Trump parody You Can’t Spell America Without Me. He is the host of a Podcast, Here’s the Thing, for iHeartRadio.
Baldwin is married to author and wellness expert Hilaria Thomas Baldwin. They have seven children: Carmen, Rafael, Leonardo, Romeo, Eduardo, Lucia, and Ilaria, as well as his eldest, Ireland Baldwin. Hilaria and Alec oversee The Hilaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation, which focuses on funding the arts.
Terrence Wilson
Piano
Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Lawrence Renes, Robert Spano, Yuri Temirkanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gunther Herbig and Michael Morgan.
Abroad, Terrence Wilson has played concerti with such ensembles as the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has toured with orchestras in the US and abroad, including a tour of the US with the Sofia Festival Orchestra (Bulgaria) and in Europe with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.
An active recitalist, Terrence Wilson made his New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center. In Europe he has given recitals at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Louvre in Paris, and countless other major venues. In the US he has given recitals at Lincoln Center in New York City (both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly with the Ritz Chamber Players. Festival appearances include Aspen, Blossom, Grant Park, Tanglewood and Wolf Trap.
In recent seasons, Wilson performed as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Anchorage, Brevard (FL), Greensboro, Harrisburg, Memphis, Portland (ME), Raleigh and Wichita to name a few. He also appeared as soloist with the Madison Symphony in their gala season-opening concert in September 2023. Other highlights included a multi-city chamber music tour with Imani Winds with performances at such venues as the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, a recital tour culminating in a recital at the prestigious Ravinia Festival – 25 years since his debut, and a return as soloist with the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago with performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero. Wilson also performed with Symphony Tacoma as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Roanoke and Toledo among others. He also made a recital appearance in Brookings, OR and performed chamber music with the Escher Quartet in New Orleans.
In 2025-2026, Wilson performs with the Folsom and Stockton Symphonies (Beethoven piano concertos 3 and 4 respectively). He will also perform with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, OH and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) – Bard College’s graduate training orchestra – in Saint-Saëns’ 2nd and 5th piano concertos respectively. The season will see Wilson in recitals at Boston Conservatory’s (at Berklee) Piano Masters Series, and in Washington, DC at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington. Other highlights of the season include a tour with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the Catalyst Quartet with performances in San Francisco and at the Library of Congress, as well as a performance in Montréal at Fondation Arte Musica with the Escher Quartet.
Committed to education, Wilson serves as a member of the piano faculty at the Brevard Music Center (BMC) Institute and Festival in Brevard, NC for six weeks each summer. In July 2024, he was featured as faculty soloist with the Brevard Chamber Symphony at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium at BMC. He is also a frequent guest teacher, lecturer and adjudicator in numerous international piano competitions. In 2025, Terrence Wilson was a pre-screening juror in the junior division of the Palm Springs International Piano Competition and adjudicated in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In April 2026, Wilson will perform a joint faculty recital at Bard Conservatory with Raman Ramakrishnan, in a program including the cello sonatas of Frank Bridge and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Terrence Wilson has received several awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, public television, and as a guest on late night network television. In 2011, Wilson was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist with an Orchestra” for his (world premiere) recording with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero of Michael Daugherty’s Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra – written for Wilson in 2007.
Terrence Wilson is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has also enjoyed the invaluable mentorship of the Romanian pianist and teacher Zitta Zohar, as well as that of Maria Clodes-Jaguaribe. A native of the Bronx, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey. In March 2021, Wilson was appointed to the piano faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Formed in 1928, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Hollywood’s most
talented, sought-after musicians. With extensive credits in film, television, recording and the
orchestral industry, the artists of the Pasadena Symphony and POPS are some of the most
heard in the world.
Brett Mitchell assumed the post of Pasadena Symphony Music Director on April 1, 2024. The
multi-platinum-selling, Emmy and Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The
Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Michael Feinstein, assumed the role of Principal
Pops Conductor Emeritus in September 2025, after leading the POPS for 14 years, succeeding
Marvin Hamlisch. Resident Pops Conductor Larry Blank will lead the POPS for the 2026 season.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS performs in two of the most extraordinary venues in the
United States: Ambassador Auditorium, known as the Carnegie Hall of the West, and the Los
Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served
the youth of the region for over five decades through the Pasadena Youth Symphony
Orchestras (PYSO). PYSO offers supplemental in-class instruction within the Pasadena Unified
School District and eleven performance ensembles, serving over 700 4th-12th grade students
from all over Southern California. The PYSO has performed at venues across the globe as well as
on the television show GLEE.
The Pasadena Symphony Association provides people from all walks of life with powerful access
points to the world of symphonic music. www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org