Video: Behind the scenes with Mariachi Vargas at WDET Detroit
Posted: 11/5/10 -- 9:36 am
by Jim Leija
Here’s a special behind-the-scenes video of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan artist residency. Yesterday, Alberto Alfaro (violinist in Mariachi Vargas) accompanied two youth Mariachi singers, Sebastien de la Cruz and Karenn Lazo (both were winners in the 2009 Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza Competition) on the Craig Fahle radio show on WDET 101.9 FM Detroit. Sebastien and Karenn will sing this morning at Hil Auditorium in a special youth performance for K-12 students from Southeastern Michigan. I highly recommend scanning forward to about 1:30 in the video to hear Sebastien sing — he’s amazing! Also, don’t miss Karenn’s performance at the end of the video, which is equally stunning.
Jim Leija is UMS Director of Education & Community Engagement. He's an alumni of the University of Michigan College of LSA, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and School of Art & Design. Jim lives in Ann Arbor with his partner Aric and two dog-children named Olive and Maisie.
about 4 days ago 
about 7 days ago 
EXCELLENT PRESENTATION. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. COMMENTS AFTER THE CONCERT WERE ALL POSITIVE. WAITING FOR A RETURN TO ANN ARBOR OF EL MARIACHI VARGAS.
HECTOR S. HERNANDEZ
I loved the amount of audience participation that the group encouraged from the stage. I wished there could have been "closed captioning" for the non-hispanics in the audience to translate the songs. As soon as a song would start its first few bars, cheers and applause erupted from the audience as these songs were old favorites for many. At one point, one of the Mariachi musicians handed his microphone to an older gentleman in the second row after he approached the stage. The gentleman finished the song in perfect pitch. Other musicians left the stage, walked up the aisles and sang directly to some of the audience in their seats. We were encouraged to sing and clap along to the lively music. I did not realize how much vocal singing is a part of the Mariachi's performances. Each member of the group would show-off when singing- by holding certain notes in a song for a very, long time.
I expected many happy, foot-tapping tunes, but I never expected that some children and adults, who were dressed in traditional, colorful, Mexican outfits, would easily join the band on stage at the end of the show to dance and sway with the music! Magical!
Listening to the two winners of the singing contest, one boy 8 yrs old and one teenage girl, who opened the show for Mariachi Vargas was the icing on the cake. A joyous performance!
Rose Wedal
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