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PALO ALTO COLLEGE CONJUNTO MUSIC PROGRAM TO HOST CONFERENCE

The Palo Alto College Conjunto Music Program will host “Conjunto: Teaching the Tradición, the Second Meeting of Maestros and Administrators of Programs and Organizations Working in the Field of Conjunto Music Education in the State of Texas” on Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center from 12 noon to 6:30 p.m. A reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Bene Medina y el Conjunto Águila will perform and lead a jam session from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. with students from conjunto programs from throughout the state.

The conference will bring together teachers, administrators, organizations and individuals from throughout the state who are involved in teaching conjunto music to discuss issues and to share information that is relevant to the teaching of conjunto music. Conjunto is that unique form of Mexican American music that originated in South Texas that utilizes the button accordion and bajo sexto as its principal instruments.

The conference agenda:

12 noon: Introductions of the maestros, administrators, and organizations.

12:45 p.m.: Joel Guzmán, premiere accordionist, producer, arranger, recording artist and teacher, will give an overview of his new instructional CD-Rom and teaching method he is developing for the button accordion.

2:30 p.m.: Oscar Hernández, virtuoso accordionist and teacher who is considered one of the all-time great accordionists in the history of conjunto music, will give an overview presentation of his newly-developed teaching method for the button accordion: Clínica de Acordeón.

4 p.m.: Dr. Manuel Peña, the world’s foremost authority on conjunto and Tejano music, will give a presentation on the importance of contextualizing conjunto music by teaching its history, and social and symbolic significance to the Chicano people.

5 p.m.: A discussion on the formalization of this conjunto network.

Maestros scheduled to attend include: Bene Medina, Chucho Perales, Eva Ybarra, Mike Carrillo, Rudy López, Juan Tejeda, Lorenzo Martínez, Ed Snyder, Carlos Guerra, and others. Confirmed participants of programs and organizations include: Cristina Ballí (Director of Programs/Narciso Martínez Cultural Arts Center/San Benito); Rudy López (President, Board of Directors/Conjunto Heritage Taller/San Antonio); Amancio Chapa (Director, Fine Arts Department/La Jolla Independent School District); Ed Snyder (Director of Instrumental Music/Stephen F. Austin High School/Houston); Vickie De La Rosa (Executive Director, Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin/Seguin); Juan Tejeda (Director, Palo Alto College Conjunto Music Program/San Antonio); and other board members and interested individuals.

The conference is supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

For more information, contact Juan Tejeda at jtejeda12@mail.accd.edu or at 210/921-5113.