Lincoln Center Education to Continue 'Next Stage' Series with Brian Stokes Mitchell

Lincoln Center Education announces "A Conversation With Brian Stokes Mitchell," a new event in its Next Stage series which explores the role of education in an artist's creative and commercial work. Equally comfortable in front of TV cameras, a symphony orchestra, and Broadway footlights, Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell joins moderator Lincoln Center President Jed Bernstein in the intimate Clark Studio Theater for a candid conversation about his career and the importance of arts education in his work.

This event will take place on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, at 6:00 p.m. in the Clark Studio Theater, located on the 7th floor of the Samuel B. and David Rose Building at Lincoln Center, 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

Tickets for this event are $25 and available for purchase at lincolncenter.org, 212-721-6500, and at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, Broadway and 65th Street. Tickets for educators and students are available for $10.

Dubbed "the last leading man" by The New York Times, Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a spectacular career that spans four decades of Broadway, concerts, television, recordings and film. His long list of Broadway credits includeMan of La Mancha (Tony nomination and Helen Hayes Award); Kiss Me Kate (Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Circle Awards); Ragtime (Tony nomination); August Wilson's King Headley II (Tony nomination); Kiss of the Spider Woman and Mail, which earned him a Theatre World Award for outstanding Broadway debut. His long television career began with a seven year stint on Trapper John MD. Numerous film and TV appearances more recently include his role on Glee as one of Rachel Berry's (Lea Michele) two dads alongside Jeff Goldblum, and recurring roles on Crossing Jordan and Frasier. Stokes has performed in concert from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall and the White House. He has performed selections from Porgy and Bess with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall, works by Aaron Copland and various contemporary composers at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the batons of Leonard Slatkin and John Mauceri, Broadway tunes at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch, and jazz standards with Maestro John Williams at Walt Disney Concert Hall and with the Boston Pops. He has been invited to the White House and has performed for Presidents Clinton and Obama. In addition to his live performances Stokes has appeared on more than 20 albums on many of which he has arranged and orchestrated the music, including his new critically acclaimed recording "Simply Broadway" which features Stokes and his piano accompanist and co-arranger Tedd Firth. Stokes enjoys working with numerous charitable organizations from the March of Dimes to the USO and is the 12-year Chairman of the Board of the Actors' Fund.

Jed Bernstein was named President of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the spring of 2013. Prior to Lincoln Center, he spent seven years co-producing Broadway shows, including the Tony Award®-winning revival of Hair, and Driving Miss Daisywith Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, among others. His work in partnership with the Bridge Street Foundation to re-establish the iconic Bucks County Playhouse as a vital venue for live theatrical entertainment earned wide praise. From 1995-2006, Bernstein served as president of The Broadway League. He led the development of such programs as the Internet Broadway Database, "Kids' Night on Broadway" and televised editions of "Broadway Under the Stars" and "Broadway on Broadway." His successful corporate sponsorship programs and marketing initiatives generated significant and ongoing support for the Tony Awards®, as well as for the entire Broadway community. Bernstein worked in the advertising industry for more than 15 years at Ogilvy & Mather, Ally & Gargano and Wells Rich Greene, where he helped create some of the most noteworthy and effective marketing campaigns of recent times for major corporate advertising clients. Bernstein has taught and lectured for more than 20 years on advertising, marketing and the arts at the Yale School of Management, Yale School of Drama, New York University, and other institutions. He also is Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute, a training program for early career producers.