Mariachi for the Midwest is a comprehensive resource for building a middle school or high school mariachi program. This presentation will discuss three main topics including instrumentation, style, and resources for band/jazz, orchestra, or choir directors looking to integrate mariachi into their schools curriculum.
Erika Soveranes
- Biographical Information
A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Erika Soveranes started playing music at an early
age when she learned flute in her elementary school band. She later found the joy of violin
through her middle school mariachi program and has since been a member of several
professional mariachi groups and wind ensembles throughout the Southwest.
Soveranes received a double bachelors in Flute Performance and Spanish from the
University of New Mexico as well as a masters degree in Ethnomusicology from the University
of Texas- Rio Grande Valley. While in graduate school, Soveranes presented her thesis work
entitled “Female Mariachi’s in the Southwest: Transcending the Acclaim of Masculine Aspects of
Female Musicality” at both the Society of Ethnomusicology - Southern Plains Chapter
conference in 2017, and the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology in 2018.
Soveranes currently runs two mariachi programs in the Brownsville area. In 2017, she
established the mariachi program at Lopez Early College High School and she recently became
the Artistic Program Director of Strings and Mariachi for Revival of Cultural Arts (ROCA) at the
Brownsville Performing Arts Center. Soveranes has been a female vocal judge for the Texas
Region 28 Mariachi All Region Auditions for 5 consecutive years and was also a clinician and
judge for the Nuestra Cultura Mariachi Festival (NCMA) middle school and high school
competition.
Through mariachi, Soveranes has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.,
the 2012 London Olympics, and the world renowned Santa Fe Opera House. She currently
performs with the all-female group, Mariachi Margaritas, as well as the McAllen Wind Ensemble.