GANYC Announces Brian Stokes Mitchell as host of 4th-Annual GANYC Apple Awards
The Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) is proud to announce that TONY Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will host the 4th Annual GANYC Apple Awards on March 12, 2018 at the SVA Theater. The Apple Awards celebrate those who make New York City great. Over a dozen awards are given out to individuals & organizations who’ve shown exceptional commitment to improving our city and our experience as tour guides.
The New York Times dubbed our esteemed host “the last leading man”. Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras. He received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime.
An extremely versatile singer, Stokes has performed at venues all over the country spanning jazz, opera, pops, country, and musical theater worlds. He has made multiple appearances at Carnegie Hall beginning with his debut with the San Francisco Symphony through his televised performance in South Pacific opposite Reba McEntire to his sold-out solo concert, which he continues to perform throughout the U.S. He has twice been invited to perform at the White House and has sung for Presidents Clinton and Obama.
Stokes has delved deeply into various music disciplines. His musical talent has extended to the present day as producer, arranger and orchestrator on his own albums including his last release, Simply Broadway.
His extensive screen credits began with a guest starring role on Roots: The Next Generations which lead to a 7-year stint on Trapper John, MD. His 40-year long TV/Film run continued with memorable appearances on everything from PBS’ Great Performances to Frasier, The Prince of Egypt (singing “Through Heaven’s Eyes”), Glee, Jumping the Broom, Madam Secretary, The Blacklist, Bull and Elementary. For the past 2 seasons he has had recurring roles on Mr. Robot and Hulu’s The Path. As a voice-over artist he has portrayed dozens of characters on animated TV episodes. NPR aired his narration of Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait with the U.S. Marine Band.
As a writer Stokes has contributed to the book Hirschfeld’s Harlem, wrote the preface to At This Theatre, and co-authored the children’s book Lights on Broadway.
Stokes has received a number of awards for both his charitable and artistic work including the New Dramatist’s Distinguished Achievement Award, the Actors Fund Julie Harris Award, Canada’s Dora Mavor Moore Award (The Canadian “Tony”), and the Americans for the Arts Outstanding Contribution to the Arts Award. In 1998 he joined the likes of Helen Hayes, Sir John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and James Earl Jones when he became the sole recipient of the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League, the nation’s oldest theatrical honor, for his performance in Ragtime. In November of 2016, he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Stokes is a great proponent of arts education and speaks passionately about the importance of art in all of our lives. Last year he was the entertainment host at the first night of Lincoln Center’s Global Exchange and is a board member of Americans For The Arts, a non-partisan arts lobbying organization. He has enjoyed working with numerous other charitable organizations from the March of Dimes to the USO. Stokes has been the Chairman of the Board of the Actors Fund for the last 14 years and last year received the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for his work with that organization.
Previous hosts include the incomparable, “Mr. Show Business”, Mark Nadler and the stars of the Off-Broadway hit How to Be a New Yorker, Kevin James Doyle and Olivia Petzy.
To learn more about the GANYC Apple Awards, visit http://www.ganyc.org/2018-ganyc-apple-awards