Music to his ears: Dennis Mitchell

Growing up, Dennis Mitchell played numerous instruments from harmonica to guitar.
However, it wasn’t until he was an adult that he used his voice as an instrument or showed the slightest bit of interest in choirs or choral music. He eventually became the board president of the South Texas Chorale, the largest adult chorale in South Texas, a position he held for two decades.
Although Mitchell has called Harlingen home since 1981, he was born and raised in Iowa Park, Texas, a ranch and farm town outside of Wichita Falls. Growing up he learned to play piano from his sister and harmonica from his grandfather. He eventually learned guitar, fiddle, bass guitar, mandolin and five-string guitar.
“Growing up I played in several bands and later for the church, but never showed an interest in choir at all until the early 70s,” he said.
Although it was a smaller town, Mitchell said the Iowa Park and the Wichita Falls area had a lot of musical influence with great musicians playing gigs in and around the city of Wichita Falls.
It wasn’t until he was 23 that he started singing in the choir at the First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls. From then, singing would play a major role in his life.
In the late 1980s, he and his wife, Becky, became heavily involved in the Harlingen High School Choir Booster Club to support his four children’s activities. He also served as band booster president at that time and took the role as president of the choir booster club from 1990 to 1992.
But it was in 1991 that he took another lead role that helped bring joy and music to the Rio Grande Valley for 20 years.
“In 1991, Dianne Brumley approached me and a few other community members about starting a community chorale,” he said.
The group soon became organized, appointing a board of directors and debuting with a 30-voice chorale, which sang in a Christmas program jointly with the Harlingen High School Choir. In 1994, the board restructured to nine members that included people from different aspects of the community, not just music, and Mitchell at the helm.
“We wanted to include people from the business community too to make the board well rounded,” he said. “And it just took off from there; it was amazing.”
In 1995, the South Texas Chorale added orchestral parts and by its last season in 2011, it had an 80- to 90-member chorale and the accompaniment of about a 50-piece orchestra performing a pops concert in the fall, a spring concert and their largest, flagship concert event during the Christmas holidays.
“It started as a community choir but over the years we just grew and we even had a member who drove from Roma every Tuesday,” he said. “One of the most flattering things I heard was a comment from two members who told me that our group exceeded the quality of other chorales they had been a part of, including the community group in Boston.
“But it was our patrons and supporters who stood by us for all those years that I am eternally grateful for,” he said. “They were always there when we needed them.”
Mitchell has also been honored for his civic and cultural service to the community, earning the Charley Award from the Board of the Harlingen Performing Arts. Although the chorale ended its run one year ago, he still continues to appreciate the arts.
“I have been so fortunate to play and sing and even see such amazing performances of the arts around the world,” he said. “Now I play guitar for my 11 grandchildren. I am so blessed.”