Students at the Metropolitan State University of Denver can now major in mariachi.
The new degree program, Mariachi Performance and Culture, is the first of its kind in Colorado, blending musical performance, cultural studies and business.
“What we’re really trying to create here is the Juilliard of mariachi,” said Philip Ficsor, MSU Denver music professor and one of the faculty members who helped develop the program, in a university publication. “That’s our goal in Denver.”
The degree began as a student mariachi club founded by music professor Lorenzo Trujillo, a lifelong musician and cultural advocate, that grew into a class and blossomed from there.
The classes are intended to teach students not just to play mariachi music but to understand where the music came from, what it means and how it impacts the culture.
Classes include music theory, voice courses, guitar, Chicano history, Spanish, contemporary Mexican literature, principles of marketing and introduction to business, to name a few.
MSU Denver has been a mariachi trailblazer over the years.
The university sponsored the first youth all-state mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Estelares de Colorado, in 2023. In 2016, Trujillo told The Denver Post he was training his mariachi students to go forth and spread their musical and cultural expertise among Denver’s youth to pique their interest.
Ruby Godoy Flores, a student and mariachi ensemble secretary, told the university publication that the major represents belonging.
“There’s nothing like it in Colorado,” she said. “It’s going to bring in a lot of people, not just from here but from other states, too. Some people might not want to go to Texas or New Mexico. Now, they have another option.”
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