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Go directly to: ACTA Organizes the 25th Annual ¡Viva El Mariachi! Festival Workshops Los Cenzontles with Julian Gonzalez Releases El Toro Viejo: Traditional Mariachi Volume 4 New Report Highlights the Role of Art and Culture in Immigrant and Refugee Communities California Arts Council Holds Statewide Conference on the Arts The Society for Ethnomusicology Issues Position Statement on Torture
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WHAT'S NEWSubscribe to The New Moon, ACTA's Monthly E-Newsletter. See the latest edition of The New Moon. ACTA Bids Farewell to Archivist and Special Projects Coordinator Mari PongkhamsingOn February 5, 2007, ACTA bid farewell to Special Projects Coordinator Mari Pongkhamsing. Mari, who has been with ACTA since January 2004, has begun a full-time internship at the Fisher Children's Center of the San Francisco Public Library as she pursues a career in Library Science. Mari was ACTA’s first archivist, as well as serving as editor of The New Moon and coordinator of the Apprenticeship Program. Mari also coordinated the launch of California Cultureplace, along with her many other contributions. Mari had this to say about her time at ACTA: I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to work at ACTA. I learned so much during my time here. I especially loved working with all of the talented artists in ACTA's programs who inspired me with their devotion to preserving their traditional art forms. Sherwood Chen, ACTA’s Associate Director, is now serving as ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program Coordinator. He may be reached via email or at 415-561-1562. Suzanne Hildebrand, ACTA’s Administrative Coordinator, is now serving as The New Moon Editor. She may be reached via email or at 559-237-9812. ACTA Organizes the 25th Annual ¡Viva El Mariachi! Festival Workshops
Photo Credit: Bob Higgins For the fourth year, ACTA is organizing the instructional workshops for the oldest mariachi festival in California. Radio Bilingüe’s annual ¡Viva el Mariachi! Festival workshops are an opportunity for students of mariachi music to learn new skills and techniques from professional mariachi musicians. The workshops, open to individuals ages ten and older, offer instruction for beginners, intermediate, and advanced musicians on traditional instruments – violin, vihuela, guitar, guitarrón, and trumpet. Voice instruction is also offered. Also included is a morning lecture about the history and context of today’s mariachi music. This year, composer, arranger, and performer Miguel Martinez will be highlighted. The workshops will be held Saturday, March 24, 2007, on the campus of Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma, California, hosted by ACTA board member Vicki Filgas and her ballet folklorico group, Los Paisanos de Selma High School. Workshop registration has begun. Early registration is highly encouraged, as space is limited. Registration fees of $60 are valid until March 9, 2007. Late registration fees are then $80 until March 24, 2007. Registration includes one day of instruction, sheet music, and admission to the Festival concert on Sunday, March 25, 2007. All students will be invited to participate in Sunday’s Festival concert. Beginners will be led by Juan Morales, a mariachi music instructor from the South Valley, and Mariachi Tenochitlán of Fresno. Intermediate students will be taught by Mariachi Mujer 2000, an all-female mariachi group that will be performing in the Festival concert the following day. Advanced students will be taught by Nati Cano and his Mariachi Los Camperos. This featured mariachi group of the Festival has received national acclaim for the quality of their music, performing throughout the United States and Canada. They have accompanied many famous vocalists, including Linda Ronstadt. Nati Cano of Los Camperos is a third-generation musician and a National Heritage Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts who has worked to promote and preserve the cultural traditions of mariachi music for 40 years. He has taught Radio Bilingüe’s ¡Viva el Mariachi! Festival workshops for many years, sharing his experiences and mariachi technique, as well as his enthusiasm for traditional mariachi music. Mr. Cano is also a founding board member emeritus of ACTA. Those interested in registering for the workshops should contact Radio Bilingüe at 559-455-5763. Registration forms can also be downloaded from Radio Bilingüe’s website. Radio Bilingüe’s 25th Annual ¡Viva el Mariachi! Festival concert will feature Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, Mariachi México de Pepe Villa, Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Mariachi Mujer 2000, José Gutiérrez y Los Hermanos Ochoa, and Grupo Arpex. Tickets range from $7 – $42, and tables of 10 can be purchased for $600 – $1,500. To purchase tickets for the festival, visit the Ticketmaster website or call Radio Bilingüe at 559-455-5763. The workshops are sponsored by AAA, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Fresno Arts Council, Los Paisanos de Selma High School, National Endowment for the Arts, Selma Unified School District, Valley Public Television, and Wells Fargo. For more information, visit Radio Bilingüe’s website. Los Cenzontles with Julian Gonzalez Releases El Toro Viejo: Traditional Mariachi Volume 4
El Toro Viejo Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center is proud to announce the release of its fourth volume of little-known traditional mariachi songs and dances. El Toro Viejo breathes new life into the forgotten tradition of the pre-commercial mariachi. Los Cenzontles is a group of artists based in San Pablo, California, that explores and promotes Mexican folk music in a handful of regional styles. In six years of intensive focus on traditional mariachi music and dance, Los Cenzontles has recorded four CDs, two anthologies, and a PBS DVD documentary – Pasajero, A Journey of Time and Memory. El Toro Viejo is their fourth volume of traditional mariachi music. In 2000, the group met an elder musician who knew a forgotten style of mariachi music, a style which reflects the character of the rural people of Southern Jalisco – raw, proud, and energetic. This old style fell victim to the overwhelming popularity of the contemporary mariachi. Instrument by instrument, Julian Gonzalez showed the group members the music and dance of this tradition that he learned in his youth on the ranch of Camichines, Jalisco. (Julian Gonzalez is also a former master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, which also provided the first support for Los Cenzontles to begin learning from Julian in 2000.) The group was immediately taken by this elder gentlemen and this little-known old style of playing. Its bowings and style were certainly different from that of the contemporary mariachi which had become standardized and often abbreviated. Instrumental technique is closely tied to the rhythms and articulations of the dance. Indeed, Don Julian’s repertory is comprised mostly of sones – a music meant to accompany zapateado (percussive) dance. Another element that distinguishes the traditional from the modern mariachi is the emphasis on improvisation and hearty rhythmic drive. For more information, or to purchase this CD, visit Los Cenzontles Mexican Art Center’s website. New Report Highlights the Role of Art and Culture in Immigrant and Refugee CommunitiesThe Art of Community: Creativity at the Crossroads of Immigrant Cultures and Social Services, a new report from the Institute for Cultural Partnerships and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), reflects the belief that highlighting the role of art and culture in immigrant and refugee communities is vitally important, and recognizes art and culture as a critical pathway to immigrant integration. The Art of Community illustrates how weaving art and culture into program initiatives can lay the foundation for newcomers and the receiving society to find common ground and work together to build vibrant communities in which everyone has a stake. It offers strategies, lessons, and insights to inform foundation giving at the intersection of arts and community services. The Art of Community is available for order or download from GCIR’s website. California Arts Council Holds Statewide Conference on the ArtsOn January 31, 2007, for the first time in over four years, the California Arts Council (CAC) convened a statewide gathering of 450 arts leaders in Sacramento. The centra theme of the day, Reflecting ~ Reframing ~ Responding, caused many of the speakers to discuss the need for a concerted effort for Californians to work together with our public officials to make the case for greater public funding for the arts. California ranks last in per capita arts spending in the nation. The arts council has been slashed from a high of $30 million in the 2000-01 budget to about $1.2 million in Schwarzenegger’s proposed 2007-08 budget. The day was chockfull of panels and distinguished speakers. If you were not able to attend the conference, you can listen to what Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, had to say in his interview with Muriel Johnson, Director of the CAC. Annette Bening, Artist and California Arts Council Member, addressed the conference and shared her commitment to work towards greater public arts funding this year. For another perspective about the conference, visit Barry Hessenius’ blog. Barry was a former director of the CAC. At the end of the day there was time for networking and many stayed to discuss collaborating on a statewide advocacy strategy for a $37 million dollar campaign for the arts, which would make $1 per capita available in arts funding. As a point of reference, New York State spends $2.70 per capita in arts funding. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts is joining this effort and we hope you will too! Let your legislators know why supporting arts and culture in your community is important. The Society for Ethnomusicology Issues Position Statement on TortureOn February 2, 2007, the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Board of Directors issued a position statement against the use of music as torture. The Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) condemns the use of torture in any form. An international scholarly society founded in 1955, the SEM and its members are devoted to the research, study, and performance of music in all historical periods and cultural contexts. The SEM is committed to the ethical uses of music to further human understanding and to uphold the highest standards of human rights. The Society is equally committed to drawing critical attention to the abuse of such standards through the unethical uses of music to harm individuals and the societies in which they live. The U.S. government and its military and diplomatic agencies has used music as an instrument of abuse since 2001, particularly through the implementation of programs of torture in both covert and overt detention centers as part of the war on terror. The Society for Ethnomusicology:
For further information on the American history and praxis of using music as an instrument of torture, the Society for Ethnomusicology recommends the following article: Suzanne Cusick, “Music as Torture, Music as Weapon,” Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review 10 (2006). |
