Hailed with “honest” and “transparently clean” singing, tenor Mitchell Sturges, a Salt Lake City native, recently returned to Salt Lake after living in Cincinnati, OH. Prior to living in the Midwest, he was in his fourth year as an education outreach Teaching Artist for Arizona Opera in elementary and middle schools throughout southern Arizona. Before his time in Arizona, he lived in Vienna, Austria for 3 years, making his international operatic début singing the role of Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in over 200 performances, under the auspices of The Sound of Austria & Viking River Cruises. While in Vienna, Mr. Sturges was a frequently sought-after concert performer, singing the music of Lehár, Mozart, and Johann Strauss in celebrated and historic venues such as the Schönbrunn Orangerie, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Schloss Laxenburg, Casino Baumgarten, Haus der Industrie, Stift Klosterneuburg, and Palais Eschenbach.
An active chorister, he has held professional positions at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble, and The Union | Breath Collective in Cincinnati, OH; First Presbyterian Church, and the Utah Symphony & Opera in Salt Lake City; Arizona Opera, St. Phillip's-in-the-Hills Episcopal Church, First United Methodist Church, and True Concord Voices & Orchestra in Arizona; currently he is a staff singer at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Park City. Mitchell can be heard on Coro Volante’s New Choral Voices: Volume 6 & R. Murray Shafer albums, and as a soloist with the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir.
The 2024-25 season finds Mitchell presenting his new recital project, Sacred Twilight, modeled after the Anglican Evensong service, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Park City, Utah and Ascension & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, which will have the world premieres of Sarah Wallin-Huff's Psalm 47 & Stephen Jackson's And you, whose eyes shall behold God, and the Western-US premiere of Melissa Dunphy's Hymns of Hildegard; performing a recital of all German lieder at St. James' Episcopal Church; Haydn's The Creation, concert of music by Zumaya, Llenas, and Padilla, concert of music by Britten, MacMillan, Poulenc, and Alain, and a tour to Portugal with the Cathedral of the Madeline.
Rapidly being recognized as an innovative recitalist, Mitchell Sturges is known for his commitment to exploring and performing a vast array of song repertoire, with a special passion for 20th & 21st century American song. Mr. Sturges has been presented in recital at such esteemed venues as St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, England, Los Angeles City College, University of Arizona, Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake, First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake, and the Salt Lake City Library, giving “inspired performances” and leaving audiences “entertained and edified.” A dedicated champion of new music, as part of his Artist-in-Residency at Ascension & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church from 2021-23, he performed the world premieres of Clint Borzoni’s Requiem Fragments and O You, Whom my Soul Loves & Melissa Dunphy's Hymns of Hildegard, and has been an active commissioner of new works for the last decade. In 2012 & 2016, Mitchell was a national finalist for the American Prize in Vocal Performance in art song and oratorio.
A consummate concert artist, he has been featured throughout Vienna, Ohio, Kentucky, and the American Southwest performing the works of J.S. Bach, P.D.Q. Bach, Britten, Diabelli, Dubois, Dvořák, Gounod, Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Nunes-Garcia, Orff, Radhartinger, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, and Schütz with Lutherische Stadtkirche, St. Andreas-Hütteldorf, Piaristenkirche, Musica Sacra-Cincinnati, Bach Ensemble of St. Thomas, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake Symphonic Choir, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake, Tucson Masterworks Chorale, Dove of Peace Lutheran Church, Northminster Presbyterian Church, South Mountain Community College, Southwest Symphony Orchestra, and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.
Past operatic roles include performances with Cincinnati Opera, Oper in der Krypta in Vienna, Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Paradigm Chamber Orchestra, Salt Lake Symphony, Expositions :: SLC Concert Series, international music festival La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, University of Arizona Opera Theatre, and University of Utah Lyric Opera in productions of La boheme, Gianni Schicchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Consul, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and West Side Story.
