At Bryan Station High School’s graduation ceremony on Friday, people heard a performance of “Cielito Lindo” by Mariachi Escudo de Bryan Station, which Fayette school district officials describe as Kentucky’s only well-known high school Mariachi band .
“These students have done an incredible job, and it is an example of our continued work to expand access to a wide range of diverse arts opportunities for our students,” said Tyler Murphy, Chairman of the Fayette Public Schools Board of Directors, in a Facebook post.
With some community members upset that some school boards are cutting back on arts programs, Murphy said in an April post that the school board made an extra dollar in last year’s budget cycle. 4 million investments in visual and performing arts at the district level.
In the 2022 budget cycle, district-level spending on visual arts was $347,315, he said.
At a November school board meeting, Fayette School of Fine Arts Director Katherine Lowther said a “direct and obvious result of that investment” was the mariachi band.
She introduced Nathan Bailey and Genaro Rascón, who together taught two sections of World Music/Mariachi in both Spanish and English at Bryan Station High School.
li Their group, described as the first known Mariachi student ensemble in Kentucky, recorded a performance of “Canta, Canta, Canta” (Sing, Sing, Sing) for the board.
Rascon told the school board it was “a point of pride” that Bryan Station High School was the first public school in Kentucky to offer a mariachi band program.
Rascon said his mission as an educator has always been to align Mexican folk music with art categories such as orchestra and jazz.
Mariachi, Rascon said, is a multidisciplinary art.
“It’s live performance, it’s theater, it’s language arts because it’s in Spanish. It’s a use of math and science,” he said.
Rascon said mariachi is traditionally taught in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
He said the band has received several requests for live performances and that other Fayette schools are interested in a mariachi band program
Rascon said the Bryan Station High School mariachi band wants to perform at national mariachi school conferences.
Half of the students in the mariachi band are traditional band and orchestra students who have been playing for years, he said.
“The other half had never touched an instrument or read music” before joining the mariachi band and performing for just a few months.
School administrator Marilyn Clark asked Rascon if the program could be offered to younger students.
“I would definitely love to have programs for middle school or elementary school… down the line,” Ranscon said.
