New Home of the Sunshine Coast Symphony Orchestra
We’re excited to announce that we are the new home of Sunshine Coast Symphony Orchestra!
As fans of classical music continue to grow in current years, the move to our Kings Theatre offers a mix of tiered and flat seating for excellent viewing, and will enable the SCSO to accommodate it’s ever-growing patronage.
They will be performing for the first time in their new home this March with new conductor, Dr Fletcher Mitchell, after the retirement of long-time conductor, Mr Adrian King.
Besides his experience and skills as a Conductor, Fletcher is also a world-renowned Euphonium soloist, who has been an active exponent for the promotion of the Euphonium as a solo instrument in Australia and overseas. He has travelled the world as a guest soloist, conductor, adjudicator, and educator including to the United States, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom, Asia, the Pacific, and across Australia & New Zealand.
He began playing the baritone at age 8 because his musical family had the instrument at home. He quickly progressed to the euphonium and played in school and community brass bands. His love of playing in brass bands grew from this early experience in Bundaberg.
In 2007 Fletcher successfully auditioned for a full-time euphonium position with the Royal Australian Navy Band (RAN) Band where he served until 2020, before transferring to the reserve RAN Band on a part-time basis to establish himself as a soloist and brass educator.
Fletcher has since been in demand as a euphonium soloist internationally, performing at Brass festivals and conferences in numerous countries including the United States, Italy, Finland and Japan. He has used his international success and profile to promote and showcase Australian music, performing pieces he commissioned to be written by Australian composers. One of these compositions, Three for Two, a euphonium duet written by Australian composer Brendan Collins, he premiered at the Lieksa Brass Week in Finland in 2019 with his then 12-year-old daughter, Adele. This piece is one of 20 he commissioned between 2013 and 2020.
As an educator, Fletcher was the lecturer in low brass at Monash University in Melbourne during 2015-2016 before he moved to Brisbane in 2017. He is currently the euphonium lecturer at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, and is a low brass lecturer at the University of Queensland. He was awarded a Ph.D. for his doctoral research, ‘The Emergence of Australian Solo Euphonium Repertoire’.
