Día de Muertos Celebration! La Jolla Music Society’s popular FREE Wu Tsai QRT.yrd Concerts returns this fall! Plan to meet up with friends at The Conrad and enjoy some live music—or come solo and make some new friends! Serafin Paredes established Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego in 2001 with three main goals: To have a place where his students could further their musical knowledge, continue their education after high school, and connect with their culture through music. To help achieve these goals, in 2003 Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego became the first and only nonprofit mariachi in San Diego. Members of Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego are required to maintain a certain grade point average during high school to remain a member of the mariachi. To keep students motivated to continue their education after high school, Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego gives members a small scholarship to help pay for their college expenses. Former and current members of Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego have continued their education at institutions such as San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, Southwestern College, San Diego State University, California State University Dominguez Hills, University of California San Diego, University of San Diego, George Mason University, University of San Francisco, National University, and Stanford University to name a few. In 2003, Serafin Paredes attended the Tucson International Mariachi Conference, where he saw students interacting and learning from professional mariachi musicians through educational workshops. Being there inspired Paredes to create his own conference in San Diego. For the past 14 years, Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego has being hosting an Annual Mariachi Conference in March, where students from San Diego and other parts of the United States and Mexico get together for two days and showcase their talent. The purpose of this event is to give students a space to master their skills, develop leadership skills, and mainly, to learn to respect the rich and living tradition of Mexican folklore. Throughout the years, Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego has traveled and performed in cities including San Juan Capistrano, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Tucson, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tijuana, Baja California, and Guadalajara. In 2018, the group had the privilege to travel to Japan and perform around Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo alongside the Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Sergio Caratachea, Javier Rodriguez, and Yoshi Oshima.
