Brochure: Academia de Mariachi de Connecticut
DistributorDistributed by
Mariachi Mexico Antiguo
Date2016-2017
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.26.1
DescriptionSouthern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program ephemera relating to Mariachi Mexico Antiguo & Academia de Mariachi de Connecticut, whose members have been involved in teaching in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
Brochure for Academia de Mariachi de Connecticut.
NotesBiographical Note: The Mariachi Academy of New England taught music related to Mexican mariachi – a range of instruments, vocal techniques, and songs, in cities across Connecticut from 2016-2021. Several musicians from Mariachi Mexico Antiguo in Las Vegas had visited Connecticut several times to teach mariachi music at a new academy for young students, developed in Wallingford’s Mexican community by Evangeline Mendoza. The success of this venture, and the founder’s retirement, led members of the group to move to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2016 to lead the school. The Academy was directed by experienced mariachi musician Adam Romo. Several performing ensembles comprised of the students performed across Connecticut and the region. Adam Romo mentored a mariachi student in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2020-2021.Brochure for Academia de Mariachi de Connecticut.
Biographical Note: Mariachi Mexico Antiguo, a group of 12 men and women based in Wallingford CT, is celebrated for its vibrant sound, traditional core, and respectful focus on the traditions of the mariachi genre. Their instrumentation includes guitar, guitarrón, harp, violin, trumpet, and vocals. Established in 2010 by former and current students of local music schools in the Las Vegas area, Mariachi Mexico Antiguo learned the tradition from Jesus “Chuy” Guzman and members of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. As ambassadors of mariachi, the group has traveled to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, New York, Colorado, Washington, Wyoming and Connecticut. Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has worked with renowned artists such as Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Jose Hernandez and his Mariachi Sol de Mexico, members of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. They have also accompanied artists such as Beatriz Adriana, Graciela Beltran, Gildardo Alvarez, Juan Valentin, Flor de Toloache, and Placido Domingo. Members of the group had visited Connecticut several times to teach mariachi music at a new academy for young students, developed in Wallingford’s Mexican community by Evangeline Mendoza. The success of this venture, and the founder’s retirement, led twelve musicians from the group to move to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2016 to lead the school. Since then Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has become well known for its joyous and authentic performances in festival, concert, church, and community settings. Several members of the group taught in the Mariachi Academy of New England, in Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Meriden, and New Britain, and they teach in the music classes organized by the Spanish Community of Wallingford. Mariachi Mexico Antiguo have won two Mexican Music Awards in NYC: Best Mariachi in the Tri-State Area and Best Mariachi in the East Coast. They performed to audiences of thousands at the 2018 Lowell Folk Festival and the 2019 Big E in Massachusetts. Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has produced a CD of their music. Group leader Rodbel Virula mentored guitarron student Citlalli Hernandez in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Program in 2018.
Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.
Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to these artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Mariachi Mexico Antiguo
2018 March 10
Jampa Tsondue
2018 March 10
