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It’s a music competition like The Voice, but its genre is decidedly southwestern. That genre is Mariachi, and Cynthia Muñoz said the Mariachi Extravaganzafeatures the best.
“It is a beautiful music festival that showcases the very best of mariachi music around the world,” Muñoz said. “It is a national competition. Students are coming in from all over the country.”
These students have been learning and practicing Mariachi from a young age, and now that they’re in high school and college, the level of performance is quite high.
“The mariachi extravaganza is like the Super Bowl. It's like the NBA finals, the Olympics. It's the World Cup for these students,” she said. “This is really what they are working for throughout the year.”
The competition really gets going Thursday morning.
“We start off in the morning with the original songwriting competition at 10:30 a.m. at the Lila Cocktail Theater. And then the mariachi group competitions begin at 3 p.m. and will go till about 10 p.m,” Muñoz said.
40 different mariachi groups from elementary school to college age will compete for the top prize. Then on Friday it’s the best of the best.
“Vocal competitions will start at the Lila Cockrell Theater in the morning at 9 a.m. and will go till 1 p.m.. And following the announcement of the winners will then be the very exciting high school finals,” she said. “These are the top six high school mariachi groups in the nation who will compete at the Lila Cockrell Theater on Friday at 2 p.m.”
Once the winners are selected those who come can see them perform once more.
“Winners of the vocal and group competitions. Will perform on Friday evening at the Lilac Cocktail Theater at 7:30 p.m.,” Muñoz said. “They'll be opening for one of the world's greatest mariachi groups, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán here in San Antonio.”
Muñoz said you can attend all performances at the Cockrell, but if you can’t come, you can still see them.
“We are professionally streaming it this year. So people will be able to watch this from the mariachimusic.com YouTube channel,” she said.
An additional benefit to these young performers is the scholarship money the Mariachi Extravaganza raises: $60,000 worth just last year, Muñoz said.
