By Timothy Giang ’26
Two new additions have arrived at Bellarmine with authentic musical talent and a hope to inspire Bells on their own musical journeys.
Mr. Jasper and Jacobi Mitchell, this year’s Pinkston Fellows, produce music under their band name Twinsoundz. In their music, the twins venture into R&B and neo-soul sounds. Their production is satisfyingly original, and their vocals are silky smooth. In August, at the back-to-school assembly, they performed their song If You Want to the entire school with not a single eye off their enthralling act.
The Chicago-born Mitchells have always been intertwined with music. Natural singers, they were involved in their high school choir and later the choir at Morehouse College.
Inspired by R&B sounds of the 90s, there sparked an interest in the twins to pursue a path of making music. Their sister asked what their name should be, and Twinsoundz stuck after many iterations. By time they were attending college in Atlanta, they had the various resources they needed to produce their first EP Who’s Who in 2022, which features the groovy, dance-jam Tonight and the crooning, heartfelt Come Home.
“Let’s start using our gifts and trying to actually create our own music”
The Mitchells are deeply involved in their music, from writing lyrics to mixing for release on Spotify. They cite their dedication to self-producing—a choice made for maximum creative freedom—as similar to what sonically-similar contemporaries like Leon Thomas and Laufey do.
The Mitchells are here at Bellarmine as Pinkston Fellows. The Pinkston Fellowship, named after retired faculty member Mr. Steve Pinkston, selects individuals who have recently finished college to work at Bellarmine. The goal of the Pinkston Fellowship is to provide a more diverse and colorful campus through its selection of racially diverse educators. Inspired by Mr. Pinkston’s own long-tenured dedication to education, the Pinkston Fellowship doesn’t fall into the hands of just any recent college grad, but rather individuals who are intrinsically talented, diverse, and impactful educators. They first heard of this opportunity in a chance encounter with Dr. Arriola, Bellarmine’s Chief of Staff, in the Morehouse College cafeteria.
As difficult as it is living off making music along with the modern-day reality of finding a supporting job, being awarded the Pinkston Fellowship was so impactful to the twins, they credit it all to God–“definitely an example of His grace,” Mr. Jasper Mitchell emphasized. At Bellarmine, they help out in a lot of different ways from working with PiMM to leading sessions at the leadership retreat in September to helping with BSU and Unity Council.
The Mitchells are in the process of launching a music production course at Bellarmine. Using the Black Box control booth on the second floor of Sobrato, they turned the room into a fully-fleshed music studio. Here, they record their own music, but also seek to make it a space for any student who is interested in recording their own music. A reason they drew this concept out was because in their experience, music studios are hard to access as well as pose potential risks, like financially and physically. The Mitchells aspire to give students the resources they need to learn the ropes of recording music and embark on their own creative journeys at no cost.
The Mitchells invite any musically involved student to feel free to approach them about producing music or ask to visit their studio on the second floor of Sobrato building.
If this sparks your interest, reach out and pursue your own creative journey. With an unshaken ambition, anyone can propel in their pursuits and that’s no different from Twinsoundz or any musician’s aspirations. Yet, if it comes to music and you’re more of a listener than a maker, just sit back and enjoy the sounds of Twinsoundz–the music that the two will inspire–the music of Bellarmine.
