The Mariachi Voice

The Mariachi Voice is a practical resource for all educational program directors, voice professors, historians, singers, and students of Mariachi who want to learn and encourage the tradition of Mariachi music in the United States. It explores and dissects the similarities and differences between classical and Mariachi fields regarding voice, while also providing useful classroom-tested lesson plans, voice history, and pedagogy for teaching the Mariachi singer. With this book, program instructors can more easily assist students in connecting safely and more deeply to their voices, share new songs, and introduce Mexican Spanish Lyric Diction --including the application of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)-- to Mariachi with exercises to facilitate diction, song learning, and overall technique while learning the style. An expert in Mariachi scholarship and performance, author Juanita Ulloa further includes interviews with vocal artists of Mariachi music, notably singer Linda Ronstadt and the grandchildren of well-known Mexican singer Jorge Negrete. Her career touring as a professional singer/pianist, voice professor, ethnomusicologist, and educator led her to the creation of the "Operachi" style, a crossover style between classical and Mariachi training.

Dr. Juanita Ulloa is an international Operachi singer/pianist/songwriter, linguist, and author who champions under-represented vocal works from Mexico, Spain, and Latin America as well as women composers. She pioneers the inclusion of mariachi, folklore, and commercial song into academia alongside classical singing and teaches voice at San Joaquin Delta and Laney Community Colleges, with a national private voice studio training crossover singers, including mariachi. She offers master classes, concerts, and workshops at universities in Mexico, United States, and beyond.