Mariachi Rocks: CSN’s new musical group means business

Maybe you've noticed.

NBC's hit TV show "The Voice" featured mariachi Julio Cesar Castillo.

Lady Gaga's birthday version of "Born This Way" with mariachis went viral.

A 9-year-old mariachi achieved a standing ovation and instant stardom on "America's Got Talent."

Mariachi is mainstreaming.

As mariachi programs spring up and grow in high schools across the country, the College of Southern Nevada is providing them a place to play and perform after graduation.

The new CSN mariachi group, the first in higher education in Southern Nevada, is actually a class within the fine arts department led by veteran mariachi instructor Adalberto Garcia, who also teaches at Jim Bridger Middle School.

"Mariachi is more mainstream because the mariachi programs are in the schools. There is more exposure. Obviously the parents know about it because they grew up with it, but the kids are now finding out about it. A lot of them play in community groups. It's a growing trend," Garcia said.

The Clark County School District began offering mariachi in 2002, he said, and the district's growing program - with more than 2,500 students involved- was recently featured by NBC News.

"There are a lot of students graduating high school that are going to college and they had nowhere to continue playing," Garcia said. "Now they can come to CSN. They can play and grow as musicians and students here."

CSN began the class in fall 2012 and hopes to expand the mariachi group and its performances over the next few years as more Clark County students learn about the program.

"The popularity of mariachi music is increasing, not decreasing, across the Southwest, not just in Las Vegas. The mariachi program could expand quickly, as people learn of CSN's opportunities in this area. In time, we may offer more ensembles at various skill levels, as well as instruction on the individual instruments within that genre," said Dr. Dick McGee, CSN Department of Fine Arts chair. "CSN's Mariachi Band is fun! The music is infectious, and the performers obviously love what they are doing."

The students are also serious about their music.

"Mariachi's been in my family for four generations," said 17-year-old Adrian Soto, the youngest player in the band.

A full-time CSN student studying biology and an aspiring cardiologist, Soto plays the guitarrón, a unique instrument to mariachi. It's like a bass, but looks more like an acoustic guitar.

"You look at rap and it's changed. You see rock and it's changed; mariachi is going to be the same thing," Soto said. "The younger generation is going to bring a new style to what we play, a new rhythm and a new sound."

He met Garcia as a student at Bridger Middle School and began playing mariachi in sixth grade. But he moved away to attend high school in California where they did not have any mariachi.

"In California, they had mostly traditional bands in the high school and here in Las Vegas, you see much more diversity in what the schools offer," said Soto's father, Emilio Soto. "It's pretty nice to get that mix and culture."

They ran into Garcia at the 2012 Clark County School District mariachi conference and he convinced Soto to play with CSN's group.

The music provides a great way to meet people, the younger Soto added.

CSN political science student Vanessa Cohen, 21, has played mariachi for the last five years, starting at Rancho High School. The president of the CSN Capitol Club, an active student group that focuses on student engagement in politics, she is also a violinist with mariachi in her soul.

She gave up the violin in high school multiple times to focus on school or work. She said she ran into the Rancho High School mariachi director on accident and hasn't stopped playing since.

"A lot of us who played mariachi in high school, we sort of lost hope and then this happened," she said, waving her bow and indicating the CSN mariachi group.

Cohen and her mother sewed the blue satin moños, plush bowties, for the band and the women's sashes and bows.

The close-knit group lost one of its inaugural members, 21-year-old Christian Regalado, who died in a tragic car accident this fall. The loss of their friend put their final winter performance in jeopardy as the group vacillated on whether or not to play.

In the end, the show went on and the CSN students paid tribute to Regalado on stage, displaying his instrument where he would have played.