His extensive experience as both an arranger and composer culminated in the production of his first solo instrumental album, Collage (Warner Music). This record was recognized nationally, resulting in three East coast Music Award nominations, winning Jazz Artist of the Year in 1995.

In June of 1997, Chris did a national tour of Canadian Jazz Festivals with the Benghazi Saxophone Quartet. This tour included twelve major Canadian cities, during which time, the group received rave reviews. The Benghazi Saxophone Quartet changed their name to Benghazi Sax and recorded two compact discs Night Time Uptown and On the Lamb (Justin Time)

In July of 1998, Chris released his second solo recording titled The Witches of Redbeard (Koch) - an acoustic, mainstream jazz recording featuring saxophone icon, Phil Woods as the special guest artist. This recording showcases Chris' great abilities as a performer and composer, and producer, highlighting his own wonderfully crafted music along side choice standards as "Alone Together" and "Night in Tunisia". The recording treats all of the songs with creativity and originality. The Witches of Redbeard also features Canadian musical heavyweights; Kirk MacDonald, Jerry Fuller, Neil Swainson, Jamie Gatti and Tom Roach. The release of The Witches of Redbeard resulted in an invitation to perform at the 1999 Montreal Jazz Festival. Included in the festival is an annual competition sponsored by DuMaurier. Chris' quintet was one of ten groups selected. The Chris Mitchell Quintet was the recipient of the prestigious "Prix De Jazz DuMaurier". The award consisted of fifty hours of recording at the Karisma Studio in Montreal, a licensing deal with Justin Time Records and a cash bursary from DuMaurier. This outstanding accomplishment resulted in the completion of a full length compact disc titled Spectrum (Justin Time) which was released in the spring of 2000. Spectrum received rave reviews nationally.

In April 2002 Chris performed in the Symphony of Jazz; a world premiere of Doug Riley's Prince Edward Island Suite - concerto for symphony and jazz quartet. Again another sold out performance with rave reviews. This work was performed as part of Symphony Nova Scotia's pops program conducted by Howard Cable on March 31 2006. In December of 05 Chris was a special guest at The Havana Jazz Festival. The Chris Mitchell Quintet consisted of Canadian and Cuban musicians and featured Chris' original music. Chris's latest recording project is with the Doug Riley B-3 Quartet. This recording was completed in Toronto Live at the Montreal Bistro. Chris is currently composing for two new CD's. One is a recording for Jazz Quartet with a String Quartet and the other a Hip Hop Project which is nearly completed. Chris' symphony arrangement of his composition " The Fog" was be featured in performance with Symphony Nova Scotia as part of the ECMA celebrations in February of 07. In May of 07 Chris released his 4th CD entitled " ton-ic . This was a collaborative work with Doug Riley, Jamie Gatti, and Davud Burton. Ton-ic was nominated for the 2007 Jazz Recording of the Year. In July of 07 he was the musical director for " The East Coast Sound ". This was a broadcast concert featuring a 20 piece big band with guests from across Canada celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Atlantic Jazz Festival. In December 07 he was the Co - Musical Director for the CBC Radio Christmas Broadcast Show Live from The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Halifax. In Dec 07 Chris was also the MD for Dr Music a concert celebrating Doug Riley's life and music at The Confederation Centre Charlottetown, PEI.

Currently a permanent resident of Nova Scotia, Chris is Professor of Saxophone and a Jazz Theory Educator at Dalhousie University. Chris is also operating his company called "MitchMusic" a full- scale music service provider encompassing a variety of live and soundtrack applications. He continues to compose and arrange, and perform for a myriad of different projects.