BIOGRAPHY
Described as a “master storyteller with the tenor sax” (Jared Donze, Iowa City Icon) and as “soulful, swinging, and street smart” (Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide), Milwaukee native Dennis Mitcheltree, tenor saxophone, has spent the last couple of decades shaping the sound of New York City’s Brooklyn jazz scene: "Mitcheltree's quartet is definitely hard-core NYC: tough sounding, aggressive, and complex.” (Dave McElfresh, Jazz Now)
A former student of Joe Lovano, Billy Pierce, George Garzone and Ralph Lalama, Mitcheltree works primarily with his own trio and quartet, with whom he has recorded four CDs of original compositions. He has performed in clubs, concert halls and at jazz festivals throughout North America and Europe, including numerous performances at Carnegie Hall, and has been featured on televised jazz specials and live radio performance and interview programs worldwide. Some of Mitcheltree’s collaborations have included jazz greats Bob Moses, Jim McNeely, Howard Johnson, Gary Bartz, George Cables, Odean Pope, Kenny Werner, Ingrid Jensen, James Williams, Don Sickler, Charli Persip, Pete Yellin, Uri Caine and Ronnie Mathews.
Mitcheltree is the Artistic Director of the American Music Group, widely known for it’s INFLUENCES series presenting original arrangements of compositions by jazz masters including Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Thelonious Monk, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. He has been a panelist for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Jazz Fellowship program and the Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant Program. He has twice been a recipient of the Eubie Blake Award, a 2004 & 2008 Meet The Composer award winner (for Tenor Of The Times), a New York State Council on the Arts grant recipient and the alternate finalist for the 1996 Evansville International Jazz Saxophone Competition.
Mitcheltree recently moved to the Los Angeles area after 20 years in New York City.
EDUCATION
Berklee College of Music, Boston MA, 1983-1987.
Magna Cum Laude 4-year diploma graduate; major in performance. Scholarship to study saxophone, woodwinds and composition with Bill Pierce, Joseph Viola, Matt Marvuglio, John LaPorta, George Garzone, Andy McGhee, Fred Lipsius.
New York University, New York, NY, 1992-1994
Recipient of Eubie Blake Scholarship for further musical studies in performance and composition with Joe Lovano, Jim McNeely, Ralph Lalama.
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