Donald Charles Peter Mitchell CBE (6 February 1925 – 28 September 2017) was a British writer on music, particularly known for his books on Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten and for the book The Language of Modern Music, published in 1963.
In 1943 he registered as a conscientious objector and his war-time service was spent in the Non-Combatant Corps.
After the war, he taught at Oakfield Preparatory School, London and in 1947 founded and edited the journal Music Survey; several issues appeared before he was joined in 1949 by Hans Keller and the journal was re-launched in the Music Survey's so-called 'New Series' (1949–52), whose uncompromising critical standards and pugnaciously pro-Britten and pro-Schoenberg stance brought it renown and notoriety in equal measure.
He was responsible for Peter Maxwell Davies and Nicholas Maw joining the publisher's list.
In 1965, with the encouragement of Benjamin Britten he founded the music-publishing firm of Faber Music, and was its first Managing Director (vice-chairman, 1976, chairman, 1977, president, 1988–95).