More than 400 family and friends of San Martin Gwinn Environmental Science Academy students flocked to the Morgan Hill Downtown Amphitheater for a May 24 spring concert.
SM/G’s three-pronged music program offered attendees a trio of performances by the school’s Mariachi players, drum club and school-wide band.
All SM/G students, which encompasses migrant preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten through sixth grade, participate in fall and spring music classes. Each grade level gave a riveting performance at the Wednesday evening concert.
This was made possible through fundraising from the SM/G’s Home and School Club as well as grants from the American Association of University Women and the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras.
Instructors from the Mariachi Academy provide instruction in music theory, teach different songs and a bit of history about Mexico mariachi.
SM/G’s Drum Club, which is in its 21st year, is free for students who learn the art of percussion. There are two percussion ensembles, comprised of more than 20 students, that practice at recess and after school. Both performed two songs at the concert.
The After School Mariachi Program, which dazzled concert-goers during the May 24 performance at the Amphitheater, is a weekly, two-hour commitment October through May and is offered to first through sixth grade students. Gilroy-based Mariachi Academy of Music instruct the students, who can select trumpet, violin or guitar.
The more than 50 students in the program receive instruction in mariachi vocals and instruments. At the concert, they accompanied the kindergarten and first grade song performances and then performed two songs of their own.
