Mitchell was raised in Syracuse, New York until age eight, when her family moved to Anaheim, California. Her first instruments were piano and viola, which she started playing in fourth grade. She was classically trained in flute and played in youth orchestras as a teenager. Though she intended to major in mathematics in college, she took a class in improvisation from Jimmy Cheatham at University of California, San Diego started busking in the streets playing jazz flute. After two years at UCSD, she transferred to Oberlin College in 1987, then moved Chicago in 1990.In Chicago she performed on the streets and worked for Third World Press, a publisher of black culture. She met members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians started playing with the female ensemble Samana. Mitchell returned to school in 1993 and 1996, completing her degree at Chicago State University in 1998; she earned a master's degree from Northern Illinois University in 2000. She began teaching at schools around Chicago at the end of the 1990s, holding positions at Northern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Wheaton College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1995 she met Hamid Drake and worked with him throughout the second half of the decade. In 1997 she began an association with saxophonist David Boykin, who encouraged her to start her own group, leading to Mitchell's establishment of the Black Earth Ensemble. In the early 2000s, she became a co-host for the Avant-Garde Jazz Jam Sessions in Chicago that were started by Boykin, bassist Karl E. H. Seigfried, and drummer Mike Reed. She issued her debut album Vision Quest with Black Earth Ensemble in 2001 on her label, Dreamtime Records. The album included appearances by Hamid Drake, Savoir Faire, Edith Yokley, Darius Savage, and Avreeayl Ra. Vision Quest was expanded into a theater piece in 2003. In 2006 she worked in the group Frequency with Harrison Bankhead, Edward Wilkerson, and Avreeayl Ra. Thrill Jockey released their album during that year. Beginning in 2017, she toured and recorded with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Teaching
She joined the music department at the University of California, Irvine as an assistant professor and was promoted to professor in 2013. She participated in the Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology graduate program. In 2019 she moved to the University of Pittsburgh as the Williams S. Dietrich II Chair of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music.
Awards and honors
Down Beat magazine named her a Rising Star for flute in Critics' Polls of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2010 and 2011 she won the flute and the Rising Star categories.
