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Mitchell Hutchings
Voice Professor and Baritone
About
"An instrument that can do anything" - Graham Johnson
American baritone, voice professor, and producer Mitchell Hutchings has been heard throughout the United States and abroad, from Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall to the Antonín Dvořák Museum in Prague. He is an Associate Professor of Voice at Florida Atlantic University, where he serves as Applied Performance Area Coordinator and Director of Florida Atlantic Opera Theatre. He is also the founder and faculty leader of FAU Opera in Italy, President of the South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and Florida State Representative for the National Opera Association.
Recent honors include First Place in The American Prize in Vocal Performance and Florida Atlantic University’s 2024 Faculty Talon Leadership Award. His work appears on two GRAMMY®-nominated albums. As a producer, arranger, and conductor, he contributed to Visions of Sounds De Luxe, which earned a GRAMMY® nomination, a Telly Award, and the World Entertainment Award for Best R&B Album. He also appears as a guest vocalist on The Colors in My Mind, winner of the World Entertainment Award for Best New Age Album. His classical and opera recordings have received five Global Music Awards, including two Awards for Outstanding Achievement for Guglielmi: Amalia e Carlo (Live). He is a Voting Member of the Recording Academy® and an active mentor in its GRAMMY U® program.
On stage, his roles include Marcello in La bohème, John Proctor in The Crucible, Michele in Il tabarro, the title roles in Sweeney Todd and Gianni Schicchi, Count Onorio Ambrogi in Amalia e Carlo, Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, Germont in La traviata, and Jud Fry in Oklahoma!. He has appeared with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Opera Saratoga, Pensacola Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Opera Orlando, Gulfshore Opera, and Ensemble San Felice.
Concert credits include Handel’s Messiah with the Buffalo Philharmonic at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Great Mass in C Minor, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and performances at Carnegie Hall. Hutchings has been a resident or young artist with Opera Saratoga, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pensacola Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Dicapo Opera Theatre, and Opera Maine.
His international work includes performances, master classes, research, and institutional collaborations in Italy, Spain, Mexico, Austria, France, and the Czech Republic. He directs FAU Opera in Italy in partnership with the Conservatorio “Giacomo Puccini” La Spezia and participates in international projects exploring opera, cultural exchange, education, artificial intelligence, and emerging performance technologies.
Since beginning his collegiate teaching career, students and alumni who studied voice and vocal performance with Hutchings have earned 57 documented National Association of Teachers of Singing honors, including 25 first-place awards in classical voice, musical theatre, and commercial music. They have received recognition from YoungArts, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Classical Singer, and national and international vocal competitions.
His students and alumni have held principal artist, young artist, apprentice artist, soloist, comprimario, fellowship, and professional chorus appointments with Washington National Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra, Palm Beach Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Ohio Light Opera, Shenzhen Opera, and the Croatian National Theatre. Five alumni have also been credited as performers or contributors on GRAMMY-nominated albums.
Students have received scholarships, stipends, and funded admission to Yale University, Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Boston University, Stony Brook University, University of Arizona, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Penn State University, Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, Mannes School of Music, Florida State University, and other institutions. Former students have received college and university faculty appointments, including positions at Whitman College, North Central University, Florida School of the Arts, Capital University, Eastern Illinois University, Millikin University, Alfred University, University of Northwestern–St. Paul, Crown College, William & Mary, and Florida Atlantic University. Others have become artistic directors, music directors, and choir directors.
Hutchings also works with commercial artists as a vocal coach, arranger, conductor, and vocal producer. Artists he has coached have reached No. 2 on the iTunes World/New Age chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart and have been featured in Rolling Stone and other national publications.
His interdisciplinary training in vocal pedagogy and voice pathology informs his work with developing and professional singers. In two instances, Hutchings recognized concerning signs and encouraged singers to seek medical evaluation; subsequent clinical examinations identified papillary thyroid carcinoma. He continues to research vocal performance, pedagogy, and vocal health and publishes regularly on the MH Voice Studio® blog.
Hutchings studied voice with Robert Swensen (Eastman), David Okerlund (FSU), Robert Holquist (WCU), and Rebecca Cook-Carter. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in 2018, with interdisciplinary study in voice pedagogy and pathology. He holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Western Carolina University.
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