MEXICO: Mexico City's first Mariachi school seeks to elevate the music of the strolling bands to a whole new level

Record ID: 190371

  • Title: MEXICO: Mexico City's first Mariachi school seeks to elevate the music of the strolling bands to a whole new level
  • Date: 1st July 2013
  • Summary: VIOLIN BEING PLAYED JIMENEZ DURING LESSON STUDENT PLAYING VIOLIN VARIOUS OF STUDENTS PLAYING VIOLIN DURING LESSON STUDENT AT MARIACHI SCHOOL OLLIN YOLIZTLI, LUZ ADRIANA HERNANDEZ, PLAYING VIOLIN
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA19UVVL5YW2OARDG36CKG4U3I9
  • Story Text: Mexico seeks to show the world how mariachi music is really played at its first Mariachi School "Ollin Yoliztli" in Plaza Garibaldi, a popular tourist area in Mexico City.
    The school - which aims to professionalise the teaching of mariachi music after the genre received U.N. recognition - is funded by Mexico City's government, through the Ministry of Culture. The project started to take shape last year but the academy was formally opened in June of this year.
    Twelve music professors from the country's National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) teach its 86 students - of which 12 are women - violin, trumpet, vihuela, harp and other traditional mariachi instruments -- including, of course, the guitar.
    Students are taught the history of mariachi music, theory, technique and repertoire during a three-year academic study course, graduating as a professional technicians in musical education.
    As well as training musicians, the academy also hopes to serve as a documentation centre for the rescue and preservation of antique mariachi music records and recordings, including themes which are no longer popular, but are richly musical.
    In the future the school also hopes to become a cultural centre, where researchers can learn about the mariachi genre and where students can study the art of composition.
    Aaron Jimenez, a founding professor at the school and academic coordinator, is a professional violin concert player. His father was a member of a mariachi group and as a young child, Jimenez accompanied him on tours around Mexico's southeast.
    Jimenez regrets a late start for Mexico in professional mariachi music teaching.

    "Many in Mexico feel this (school) has started a little late, because other countries have beaten us in terms of careers, looking for mariachi players. First of all I think it's great that other countries have done this, maybe from the first world, but at the same time I feel sad that Mexico does not turn to look at our culture."
    But many also agree, the school can only help breathe new life into a musical tradition that, along with tequila, already serves as shorthand for Mexican culture the world over.
    Student Luz Adriana Hernandez specialises in violin. For six years, she played with several groups but stopped working for two years. She hopes the professional title obtained at the academy will stand her in good stead and open work opportunities in Mexico and abroad.

    "There are mariachi schools all around the world and they are recognised but here in Mexico unfortunately they took a long time for this recognition. The fact the school is giving us this certificate, well it opens up to doors to us as mariachi musicians, to even go abroad in order to give technique classes of the any instrument in the same (music) genre," she said, adding that one day she hopes to form her own mariachi band.
    Authorities hope the school inspires others to form in the city or around the country.
    Jimenez said the experience of being able to play at a concert hall encourages talented musical youngsters.

    "It's not the same thing to play at a party than it is to play at a concert in a concert hall which has taken Mexican music to another level. That's the idea of this group, of our school, and to constantly improve it and make better proposals," said Jimenez.
    Around 200 aspiring students are taking admission exams to join the academy for the following annual term which starts in September. Enrolment costs $356 pesos (US $27 dollars) with an annual payment of $2,603 pesos (US $201 dollars).
    In 2011, the U.N educational and cultural agency, UNESCO, added mariachi music to its intangible cultural heritage list. Even if more modern Mexican musical genres have surpassed mariachi in popularity on its native soil, the form-fitting suits and wide-brimmed sombreros unique to the mariachis remain on show at Garibaldi, famous as the capital's home of mariachi.
    The thousands of tourists who visit Mexico City's Plaza Garibaldi -- where strolling bands with violins, trumpets and guitars are a feature of the streetscape -- each year, both local and foreign, have helped build a global audience for musicians.
    But many mariachi band members in the plaza have no professional training - and their lack of musicianship can sometimes be a little hard on the ear of captive tourists. The school hopes to change that and make Mexico once again the king of the mariachis.
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